I was soon given details of the company and a phone number that I could contact my supervisor on. My supervisor was Karren Warren. I then had to organise an interview before I went on work experience. I phoned the placement in the afternoon but my supervisor was not in, I phoned during the day and my supervisor was in a meeting, I phoned again and was told that my supervisor had changed to Adam Aldridge. I then phoned my new supervisor and he was not available. At a later date I was informed by another pupil who was going to the same placement that she had been told to inform me that a pre-placement interview had been organised for the 29th September at 4pm.
I arrived at my pre-placement interview on time. I ensured I was dressed smartly, had prepared some questions I wanted to ask and brought my risk assessment form, which needed to be filled in at the interview. I discussed the risks of working at Cheltenham & Gloucester with my supervisor and got a risk assessment form filled in. We also discussed starting and finishing times and lunch arrangements so that I was aware of what time I had to arrive and where to go. The activities that would be done on work experience were also explained and I was briefly told about the company and what they do. I also discussed my aims and targets for going on work experience.
My aims and targets by for going on work experience are to:
- Gain experience and find out if I am suited to this type of working environment
- To explore the working world
- To gain confidence by working independently
- To ensure I meet deadlines and complete all of my work to a good standard
- Co-operate with others when working in a team and identifying my own responsibility within a group.
- To improve my confidence.
- Be cheerful and enthusiastic at all times.
- To be aware of my strengths and weaknesses.
The placement
Before going on work experience my expectations of the placement that I was going to were, a fairly large building divided into many offices, including people working independently, and also computer work with masses of paper work. However when I got to the placement I found that the jobs were very much based on working together in teams. There was also very little paper work and nearly all of the work was done on the computers. The Cheltenham and Gloucester department I went to was the head of mortgage processing. The main job of the building was to allow or disallow and process mortgages that had been applied for by Cheltenham and Gloucester’s customers. Within the Building there were different department, which contained different teams. All the departments do different jobs to do with mortgage processing and for one department to do their work the other department needs to have done their job first. The teams within the department worked independently to do their workload however if the workload was too high it could be shared with other teams within the department. All the employees worked on separate computers and the mortgages were sent from one computer to another on the internal mailing system of Cheltenham and Gloucester.
As the job was largely computer based I needed to have certain training to use the system and software. However with the help of other employees I was shown how to use the internal mailing system, how to assess a mortgage application and also the correct way to answer the phone and make phone calls.
While at the placement I took part in workflow meetings. In these meeting we discussed which teams needed to work harder, which teams needed to share out their workload, how much mortgages needed to be processed and if they could be done on time, if not overtime would be required. Through guidance I was also able to calculate figures for the meetings. I also sat in on an interview and this was very valuable, as I was able to find out about how an interview takes place, what questions are asked and afterwards I was able to see how the interviewee analysed the person applying for the job.
I was able to perform some of the duties that I was given without any help such as typing up a hit list, sorting out employee folders, and doing a project on Cheltenham and Gloucester. Other tasks, which I was not able to do alone, I did with help from other employees such as discussing workflow figures and assessing mortgage applications. The project I did while on work experience was based on Cheltenham and Gloucester and its competitors. I created a slide show on the computer along with another student on work experience and presented the project to some of the employees at Cheltenham and Gloucester.
Evaluation
The relationship between me and my supervisor at first quite formal, later on during the two weeks it became slightly less formal. I felt that I got along with my supervisor very well and also with other work colleagues. I also learnt about working in a team and working under a boss or supervisor with strict deadlines and responsibility. The placement allowed me to experience working in an office environment. It did live up to my expectations however before going on the placement I was not fully sure of what to expect. Going on work experience gave me a good experience and insight into the working world. I don’t think I would enjoy working in an office environment everyday as I found it quite tiring and not very interesting so it would not be the right career path for me. I was able to find out that the basic skills required for the job were A levels in business, IT economics etc. and sufficient training from Cheltenham and Gloucester. However there were different jobs within the building such as care takers, cleaners, solicitors, and managers. You could also apply for the job if you have had experience from a similar job elsewhere.
I was not offered a job, as I don’t not have sufficient training or qualifications. The job has not encouraged me to get a job elsewhere or to go out into the working world. It also didn’t encourage me to do a modern apprenticeship. Although it has given me more confidence and knowledge of going out to work. It has differed from my experience of school as it is slightly less informal, there are different jobs and activities to undertake, and you are not constantly learning everyday. The working world also involves longer and different working hours. I enjoyed the activity and was able to learn a lot from it.