Blog: Transition Year Work Experience
Saoirse reviews her Transition Year Work Experience in the ISSU Office.
Every Wednesday from April 6th to May 11th this year I worked in the ISSU office in Liberty Hall as part of my Transition Year work experience. During my time in the ISSU office I got to do a wide range of administration and secretarial work which I found very interesting and beneficial. I worked closely with the ISSU's General Secretary, Rebecca Dempsey, along with members of the NSE (National Student Executive).Walking up to Liberty Hall on the first day I was unsure of what to expect. I didn't know a lot about the work that the ISSU and National Student Executive did on a daily basis. I signed in at the front desk of Liberty Hall and was told to go to the 9th floor where the ISSU office is located. As I opened up the door to the office, I was greeted with a friendly and welcoming hello from Rebecca. I was first brought to the desk that I would be working at for the following few weeks, then I got a tour of the office and was given a brief but informative overview of what work was done in the ISSU and the type of work that I would be involved in.From the first day I completed many different types of office work and I personally found that my computer skills were developed greatly. I developed my computer skills by using the various databases, using Excel to make tables, and using Microsoft word to write blogs and creating lists. Other work included typing, printing and sending letters out to Student Councils throughout the country, and proof reading letters and documents. One of my main tasks whilst working in the ISSU was writing a blog piece. I really enjoyed writing my blog piece on the topic of the Junior Certificate as it was something different that I had never done before and I also enjoyed hearing feedback from people who had read my blog and had taken something useful from it.Writing the blog was one of them things that I only expected to be a small project but it turned out to be something much more. The blog was not only on the ISSU website but SpunOut.ie posted it on their page and have asked me to write for them again. In addition to that, my school uploaded it onto the school website where it got lots of attention from exam students. Because of this, I have been asked to tutor many Junior Cert students in a number of different subjects. If I wasn't asked by Rebecca to write the blog piece, none of these opportunities would have been opened up to me. That's why I think Transition Year is a great course to take part in, so many opportunities are opened up to you that you never thought would be.I learned so much from working in the ISSU and out of all the places I did my work experience in this year, the ISSU was no doubt one of my favourites. The people involved in the ISSU are some of the nicest people I have ever met, especially Rebecca who I worked closely with. I felt so comfortable working and talking with them. I was only in the ISSU for 6 weeks but in that short space of time I learned so much and developed as a person.I would definitely recommend working in or with the ISSU for work experience next year or any year after that to Transition Year students. You'll learn a lot of valuable skills and get to work in a new environment with lovely people. It was sad to leave the ISSU as I finished my work experience module but I've gained so much from it and would definitely work with them again if the if the opportunity came up.Note: Saoirse attends Ashbourne School in Ashbourne Co. Meath. You can read her article on getting through the Junior Cert here: http://issu.ie/2016/05/one-year-junior-cert/Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie
Work Experience Blog - Michael
I arrived in Tara Station on Monday at ten o’clock on my first day of two weeks of work experience with the Irish Second-Level Students Union. I went up to the 9th floor in Liberty Hall and introduced myself to Charlotte. I started with doing the TY survey on the ISSU website. Unfortunately I could not complete all of the survey as I’m not finished TY let. I then started a survey for those who have completed TY to see student’s opinion on TY and see how it can be of higher quality for the students involved. Tuesday I arrived in and met Isobel I was told to go on twitter and follow any secondary schools in the country that were on twitter. When I first looked at the list of schools I was a little stunned as there were 722 schools in the country. In the first fifteen schools seven were on twitter. Around eleven me and Isobel went to Mount Carmel Secondary School were she was going to give a talk on Student Councils, how they should be run and what the different roles are. I found this talk beneficial for myself as I am a member of the student council in my school. When we went back I continued with following more schools on twitter with some success. On Wednesday I resumed following secondary schools on twitter. It was a bit difficult to find some of the right schools as some schools had similar names with schools in Britain and the U.S. Later on in the afternoon I tweeted all of the schools I had followed since Tuesday asking if they had registered for our Dublin regional seminar. On Thursday I was calling schools in Co. Dublin asking if they had received a letter from us about a Dublin regional seminar we were holding with the Department of Education about TY students giving there feedback on the programme. Some schools that I called had no knowledge of the letter or of the event so after talking to the secretaries I emailed the schools that I had connected. I could only hope that most of them would register for Monday. Friday I started calling schools from Co. Kildare asking the same as yesterday but I got the same response. One of the members of the Board of Directors came in and helped me and Isobel with contacting some schools. After lunch I was putting a cover letter and two posters in envelopes for schools in Connacht for our regional seminar in Galway City on the 18th. We decided to address the Letter directly to the TY Co-ordinators of each school to make sure they received them. On Monday morning I went to the Department of Education & Skills instead of Liberty Hall. (I did get a bit lost trying to find the place) It was the first of a two day event we were holding with the Department in the clock tower on the grounds of the Department. My task on the first day was to observe and participate in the seminar. We were split in to groups of about 4/5 and were asked different questions of how we liked and disliked TY and if we had any changes for TY. After lunch we had a talk from Mark the president of the ISSU about student councils and student voices. There were then elections for the education panel, welfare and equality panel and regional representatives. I was elected for the education panel. Tuesday I was assisting Isobel and Charlotte with the seminar. My role was to give out paper, pens etc. and walk around and help the groups if they needed anything. I stayed with one group in particular as only one of the four in the group was in TY. I tried to persuade the other three about doing TY but they didn’t really seem keen. On Wednesday I was looking at the CSPE Curriculum to see how it can be reformed and how it can be more appealing to students. After searching up on ideas and coming up with some myself there is a demand for a greater look at politics and rights and to make it optional for Leaving Cert. I looked up other countries in Europe to see if they had any thing similar to CSPE in there own countries. France has ECJS which is quite similar to CSPE. On Thursday I was contacting schools in Co. Galway, Westmeath and Clare for our Galway regional seminar and asking if the TY Co-ordinator had received the letter and if they were planning on registering for Monday’s event. Most Co-ordinators couldn’t come to the phone as they had class but I passed the message about the seminar onto the secretaries. Now it’s Friday and I’m glad I choose to do my Work Experience with the ISSU I have learned a lot over the past two weeks and every one in the office has been great. I would recommend everyone to at least do one week of work experience here.
TY Work Experience with the ISSU
This week I have been doing my TY work experience here in the ISSU. The week has be great. More interesting than I expected. On Monday my train to Connolly arrived early so I had the chance to stroll around the city. While queuing for coffee, a man asked if I was in college. This was one of the high points of my year because I am 5' 1" and I'm usually been mistaken for a 12 year old. When I arrived at the office on that first day I was greeted by Isobel. I was quickly given a desk and a laptop. The first task at hand was to write to schools asking them to join the union. When the letters were ready we made labels and swiftly packed them into envelopes. We continued to the post room to send them off. There the staff who work in the post room who are quite friendly and funny. After lunch I looked at the results of the recent project maths survey and began to write a report on the results, which were interesting to say the least. On Tuesday I started at 10 am as opposed to 10:30 am the previous day. The morning started off with finishing the report on project maths, which took until lunch. After my usual panini, I arrived back in the office. That afternoon I had the wonderful joy of working on excel all afternoon. Updating member lists and all that stuff. My previous experience with excel was limited so I was quite pleased when I didn't break it or delete important data. Wednesday was more fun. When I came in I was given access to the website and told to basically improve it in whatever way I saw fit. This was like being let lose in a sweet shop because I love computer programming. After breaking many things on the website and spending hours in a frustrated mess, it was finally lunch time. On Wednesdays it is office tradition to buy chips and chicken from the local chipper. I was all but happy to partake in this tradition. The storage room at the back of the office gets set up as a small dining room and the staff head back to enjoy the food. After the break and the laughs, it was time to return to work and back to the frustration of web development. Finally the day was over and I could go home and relax. Thursday was a fun day. In the morning I was updating power points and using every social media platform I had access to to try and get people to fill out the survey for the TY review.At 11 am there was a coffee morning. This consisted of a lot of women I didn't know trying to force me to eat cake. I think this could be one of the causes of the childhood obesity epidemic! Around 12 pm Mark (Mr. President) called into the office. I knew Mark from CTYI so it was great to be able to catch up with an old friend. We went for lunch together and has a big rant about TY and teachers unions. In the afternoon Isobel we out of the office so I was left the task of calling all the schools we wrote to on Monday, asking if they received our letter. 6 out of 32 people answered. 3 of them turned out to be insurance companies, 1 garage, 1 person who thought I was an insurance company and the only school secretary that answered didn't open the post. With the list of calls made I was able to head home early and get the express train. Now it is Friday and it's hard to believe the week is almost over. The time flew by. Its been a great week and I have definitely learned a lot. I will be sad to leave today, knowing I won't be back. Every has been so nice to me over the past week and I really enjoyed it.Finally, to anybody interested in work experience here, go for it (click the contact button to enquire). It is a great place to do it and I promise you won't regret it. Yours Shauna
Coming soon, national review of Transition Year programme
Irish Second-Level Students’ Union are working with the Department of Education and Skills on a national review of the Transition Year programme.The long-term future of the Programme is up for negotiation as part of the significant reforms to junior and senior cycle education. Our review will focus on the experiences particularly of students, but also of staff about how transition year works for them, how it could be improved, what are the benefits, do finances limit the ability of schools to maximise the benefits of the year etc.Further information will be announced over the coming weeks! Watch this space TY Poster