To help people thinking of applying for our 2023 Social Enterprise Internship Programme, we caught up with one of our 2022 cohort participants, Amaka Udeagbaja, to get her top tips and advice about applying.
Firstly, why did you apply to the 2022 Social Enterprise Programme?
I thought Bounceback looked like a great initiative, tackling what has continued to be one of this country’s biggest social issues in a creative and innovative way. If you’re interested in the social enterprise sector, you’ll probably notice that there is a lot of internships and schemes within the for profit sector but not so much in regards to paid work experience for VSCE sector. This made finding the Social Enterprise Internship Programme a real godsend.
How did you research Bounceback Food CIC?
I looked through the projects Bounceback was working on through their website and read last year’s version of this post. This is really important because:
- When interviewing, having scrolled through the website not only informs you of whether or not you feel a good fit with the enterprise’s but is also a way to demonstrate that your interest and initial familiarity
- As part of the programme you may be tasked with helping out with the website, so it’s always helpful to have had the consumer perspective and provide insight on the design elements that drew you in in the first place
How did you structure your application?
It’s quite helpful to start drafting an example that you have from your studies, extracurriculars or personal projects to match each of the skills required and then matching them to the responsibility Bounceback lists. For example, with one of the desired skills listed being marketing, I wrote about how as Event Officer for a university society, I was responsible for creating and distributing promotional material using Canva as an example. This experience is then connected to my being able to do the same Bounceback as an intern. It can also be really helpful for the reader of your application to see how one example you’ve used is demonstrative of numerous skills exhibited.
It can be stressful to feel as if you don’t have any wide ranging experience but there’s so many hobbies and interests that you can draw on that can be indicative of good communication, attention to detail e.t.c. For example, helping out with my mum’s Sunday school. Whilst, it is not explicitly tied to what Bounceback does, the ability to manage and work with a group of children may prove useful to communicative abilities during projects involving young students.
What tasks and activities did you do during the 2 week programme?
A real variety! Starting the planning of Bounceback’s 10 year anniversary celebration event, establishing contact with over 70 independent foodbanks across the UK, contributing to the Oceanic section of the next cookbook for recipes and art organisation collaborations. During the internship, I even learnt how to make Rowena, Maori fry bread!
What skills did you learn?
- Researching from looking into the cuisine and art scene across the Oceanic region
- Organising the initial details for the inaugural event
- Collaborating with the wider team, including all the other interns.
- Presenting work to the wider team.
- Clarity of communication, from writing persuasive emails to useful recipes
Any other advice about writing your application?
Whilst there’s alot of informtion that you’ll want to get across you will still need to be concise! Being straight to the point about what your ambitions are, how Bounceback aligns with this and evidence for how well you would fit into the organisation and perform well as an intern is key. There is not much time to worry about coming off boastful.
