Career advice, insights & tips for HR professionals
Audiences North East: NCWE awards winner 03/05/2010
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Audiences North East were the winners of the 'Under 10 employees' category at the recent NCWE awards
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- 12-month paid placement as marketing assistant
- Benefits of the scheme
- Results of the scheme
- Key tips
12-month paid placement as marketing assistant
The Challenge was to identify a high calibre marketing undergraduate with an interest in the cultural sector to provide support across event management, audience research and website editing.
Steps to implementation:
The scheme has been in operation for three years and, while the scheme has been honed based on feedback from past students, the main elements have remained the same.
Steps to implementation:
The scheme has been in operation for three years and, while the scheme has been honed based on feedback from past students, the main elements have remained the same.
Benefits of the scheme
Access to undergraduate with a fairly advanced level of marketing knowledge and with an interest in working in the cultural sector. This means that our student will produce work of a high quality and will be motivated because they enjoy the cultural scene. 40% of our income is generated rather than publicly funded. Our student works across all income areas and the simple truth is that if we didn’t have a student placement we wouldn’t have achieved our targets last year.
While we’re a small organisation we like to show that we are at the forefront of thinking in everything we do. Having a student placement shows how committed we are to staff development – our 51 cultural sector subscribers all know we operate this scheme and it’s become quite a talking point.
We really look forward to recruiting our student each year. We love seeing them go through the learning curve and emerging as highly employable, cultural sector professionals. Our student last year, Lisa Mcleman, was awarded 98% in her work-based portfolio – we were so proud.
Lisa said of her placement:
“My placement year with Audiences North East was one of the most enjoyable years during my time at university. Not only was I able to learn from an organisation that positions itself in the middle of the cultural sector in the North East, but I was able to grow and develop as a person during my time there. I gained many skills that I now implement in my final year at university and know I will take with me into full time employment. It has provided me with knowledge that is only achievable through working hands on in an organisation, and it has given me a head start for my future career. ANE is a very welcoming and friendly company to work for, who genuinely care about the future success of their placement students.”
While we’re a small organisation we like to show that we are at the forefront of thinking in everything we do. Having a student placement shows how committed we are to staff development – our 51 cultural sector subscribers all know we operate this scheme and it’s become quite a talking point.
We really look forward to recruiting our student each year. We love seeing them go through the learning curve and emerging as highly employable, cultural sector professionals. Our student last year, Lisa Mcleman, was awarded 98% in her work-based portfolio – we were so proud.
Lisa said of her placement:
“My placement year with Audiences North East was one of the most enjoyable years during my time at university. Not only was I able to learn from an organisation that positions itself in the middle of the cultural sector in the North East, but I was able to grow and develop as a person during my time there. I gained many skills that I now implement in my final year at university and know I will take with me into full time employment. It has provided me with knowledge that is only achievable through working hands on in an organisation, and it has given me a head start for my future career. ANE is a very welcoming and friendly company to work for, who genuinely care about the future success of their placement students.”
Results of the scheme
- Reduced recruitment costs – average recruitment advert with regional press c£1.5k, whereas it is free to advertise with Northumbria University placement office.
- Better service delivery to our clients – improved satisfaction ratings from our annual survey of subscribers across all areas of activity.
- Becoming an employer of choice – students are really interested in our placement due to being runner up at last year’s NCWE and Lisa’s excellent mark for her work-based portfolio.
Key tips
- Provide a really detailed induction process to cover all the basics eg how to answer the phone, how to use a photocopier as well as the more complex elements of the placement.
- Treat each student differently – no two students are the same and bring completely different skills and personalities.
- Welcome them into the company – this may be their first job and it can be very daunting for them.
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Audiences North East
Audiences North East works with cultural sector organisations in the north east to enable them to increase the size and range of people engaging with them. We operate a one year paid placement scheme for a student from Northumbria University’s marketing degree courses.