Launch team/Events Co-ordinator Review

I found this was a very worthwhile placement, as the experience helps to put a lot of the theories, and lecture content into context

I think that because this scheme has been running for a while now, the team know how to approach you and treat you accordingly. The Undergraduate roles are individual jobs, so if there was no Undergraduate then it would not get done.

As mentioned, as the scheme is established, the team know how to treat you to get the most out of you

My role was largely ad hoc, and towards the end had an increased focus on events. Because of this it fluctuated as to how busy I would be, but generally each day was pretty much full.

As the job is not just working beneath/supporting someone else, there is a reasonable amount of responsibility. I think this both adds pressure, but makes acheivements more personal.

Many of the skills I have used/developed in this role are not necessarily tangible, but I think the experience overall will make me more efficient in my studies, and provide a good starting point in my next job.

The team I was part of all get on well, and many come from a similar background. This means that they can all empathise with you and help you out. Overall the atmosphere was quite relaxed and casual.

The scheme has been set up for a number of years now, so the overall process is fairly established. Staff members have dealt with many undergraduates in the past, so know how to approach new people in each role.

Over the first couple of weeks there were numerous training sessions to help develop generic skills to help the role. I think the majority of my skills that have developed over the year are more from experience and doing the role overall. Therefore any investment I would say is more on a personnel level, with other staff members using their time to support me - as opposed to paying for extensive training courses.

Although the undergraduate scheme itself does not filter directly into the graduate scheme, many of the current graduates came from the undergrad system previously. Because those of the undergard scheme have a full years experience working in the company and with those people, I think it gives them an advantage over other graduates applying for the same role.

I think there are around 100 people on the GM scheme in the UK overall, many of which are based in Luton. Luton itself is only OK in terms of what there is to do, but there are enough people to help make it good.

Overall my rent was around half what I pay at uni, although bills were an occassional inconvenience. I think this was largely because we have 5 of us in what the agents saw as a 4 bed house (one took the lounge). Going out was priced reasonably, in the first couple of weeks when we had handover event, we prebooked places and often wrangled specific deals in advance.

Luton is generally fairly limited in what it offers in terms of nightlife, but does have a couple of places to go if there are enough of you. With Watford, St Albans and London accessible by train, there are other options within reasonable distance.

There are a few activities that occur frequently, and encourage the undergrads to get involved (football and rugby with the grads etc:). Other activities depend on the team and the individual though, as some departments seemed to have more going on than others.