What is it like to work as an intern at Disability Wales?
We have welcomed many eligible students in Wales to join us as interns for a short period of time. Our most recent recruit was Amy, a third year Social Policy/Criminology & Criminal Justice student, currently studying at Bangor University.
We couldn’t let her leave us without writing about her experience. In this blog post, Amy reveals all about her time with us.
Who am I?
I am a third year Social Policy/Criminology & Criminal Justice student currently studying at Bangor University.
My internship was organised through Go Wales. Due to the on-going covid-19 situation, the entire experience was provided online.
Working with Disability Wales was extremely beneficial, giving me the opportunity to learn about both Policy/Research, and Fund Co-ordinating.
Why Disability Wales?
I chose Disability Wales as I fully support the work they do and their organisational goals. The internship also allowed me to work with multiple staff members to gain experience in a variety of jobs and discover which elements most interests me and suit my skillset best.
Importantly, it also allowed me to fit working around my degree and other commitments, while also attending meetings outside of my designated internship days where possible.
What have I been involved with?
DW gave me the opportunity to support a lot of different work while completing my internship, all of which were very interesting and greatly improved my knowledge of the sector.
I supported in the running of the three Husting events hosted by Disability Wales in the run-up to the May 2021 Senedd elections, including streamlining questions from members for speakers to answer.
I also conducted research on several topics and created a survey for members to respond to and give their views, before analysing the data collected.
Furthermore, I attended lots of meetings and supported in the creation of monitoring and evaluation forms for DPOs to complete, and also transcribed a number of meetings.
What have I learnt?
Despite my placement being online, the entire experience at DW has been invaluable and taught me a lot about the work and projects they work on. I have also learnt about the Social Model of Disability and the societal barriers faced by disabled people.
Everyone at DW always made me feel included and that my work and ideas were valued, and were incredibly supportive of me developing my skills and increasing my confidence.
Thank you to everyone at DW for this opportunity, I have really enjoyed the whole internship.
Thank you to Amy for her contributions to Disability Wales during her internship with us. We are always delighted to welcome students to our team. To find out more about student internships, visit this page. You can find out what other interns have said about working at DW by watching this video.
