Jed Rual and William Murphy do a Week of Work in our Department…

…and here are their comments:

“The Week of Work placement programme is a great, rewarding opportunity for gaining much needed experience, especially with such a lack of opportunity in today’s society. Not only was I able to gain experience in an academic environment but it was comforting that the work placement was within my own Department, meaning the work I undertook was related to my degree and interests, making the week a really enjoyable experience. As the placement was an administrative post, there was a large and diverse selection of tasks to be completed. These tasks allowed me to demonstrate many skills which I would otherwise not be able to use (generally speaking). The week is also the perfect crash course in Microsoft Publisher. Taking creative control of several projects was particularly rewarding and a welcomed change from the norm of essay writing, with most of the work I designed being displayed to the department, university and the public, something which is pleasing. The working environment is very comfortable and the staff that you work with (in my case Dr Evelien Bracke), are more than helpful when you need assistance as well as really appreciative of the hard work you put in for them!”

— Jed Rual (level 2 Egyptology)

“From my week of work I have learned to adapt my skills to a number of different tasks in a strict amount of time. During the week I have created and edited a number of pieces for the department to be used during the open days and flyers for the South West Wales Classical Association. I also handled emails for the department regarding a number of the volunteer projects and the induction event. During the week I also put together posters and information for the employability events and other department related activities. The week of work has challenged me to be more creative to produce professional and informative pieces. The most memorable part of the will be definitely be when I was able to look over a research proposal involving Latin in education across the country and being able to see the administrative side of research. I enjoyed having different tasks to do which allowed me to experience how much an academic environment needs to cover in just a single week. The week of work has allowed me to have a deeper understanding of academic environments which I’m sure will prove valuable in the years to come. The experience has been a great week of work which will hopefully help me enter similar environments after completing my MA.”

— William Murphy (level 3 Ancient History)

It’s been amazing having Jed and William’s help this week: they’ve been professional, punctual (9-5 every day!), happy to take feedback on board, and above all, creative in ways that I wouldn’t always have considered myself. They’ve come up with some brilliant resources we can use in the department.

Want to get similar work experience? Contact me at e.bracke@swansea.ac.uk.