Hi, my name is Emma Young and I am currently a student at Ricard's and Rutlish joint sixth form. I am currently studying sociology, psychology and art and design A levels.

An overview of my week

Throughout the week I have had the pleasure to meet the different members of the research team, each time with a warm welcome and each encounter with them I had been greeted with a warm smile.

In honesty, I believe I have learnt more about programmes and IT in this week than my entire life and I am extremely grateful to the CIPD for allowing me the opportunity to do so, Liz Dalton specifically for introducing me to the programmes web8 and Tridion which I worked with during the course of the entire week as well as Johanna Ratcliffe for teaching me about Kahoot and how to track links, and for both of them for taking the time to teach me how to use the respective programmes.

I also enjoyed shadowing Dilip Varsani the customer service representative at CIPD on the fourth day, and getting to see how well he and his team got along and how friendly and joyous the members of the team were. Although I may not have been able to pick much up from the short period I spent there, I will be sure to remember that the world of work does not always have to be dull, a preconception I held before having the pleasure of spending a week at the CIPD.

One of the highlights of my week was being able to sit in on a research survey with Mel Green and to be able to hear a real life briefing. It definitely brought the topic of research methods, I had been learning about in psychology, to life. I also had the opportunity to ask her about her psychology degree and masters and have definitely learnt quite a bit from our discussion and from her advice. I would definitely recommend other students studying psychology to explore occupational psychology and research and to see what it is like before ruling it out as an option.

Also, it was really interesting to learn about the technicalities of the deployment of the CIPD’s content and to learn a lot about the creation process of some of the animations from Turi Scandurra, a multimedia designer at the CIPD. I am also grateful for the knowledge Turi shared with me about the art of typography and enjoyed watching some of the animations Turi and the team had made.

I have been kept quite interested during the week with access to the same information as CIPD members, which has given me many starting points to further research, to which I can later use to expand and better my work in sociology and to use as concepts in later art and design coursework and possibly pieces.

Also, I am grateful for the kindness they have shown in offering me beverages multiple times every day I have spent here and in general for making me feel comfortable in an office environment, to which I initially thought would be all to alien to me. Also I am grateful for everyone who I have had the pleasure to meet this week for taking the time to talk to me and to show and mentor me through programmes and what they do.

From this week of work experience I get the impression that the CIPD is a place of work which genuinely cares about its employee’s well-being and a space that has successfully created a positive working environment.

All in all, if I were to pick a favourite aspect of the CIPD it would most definitely be the positive working environment to which one can always expect someone to be smiling in the office.

I have learnt much about how I can better my own future experience in a place of work though my attitude, outlook and behaviour, aspects of the CIPD which I will be sure to remember for time to come.

This week has almost certainly been an eye-opener and I have gained much insight from my experience in the CIPD headquarters.

Lastly, I would like to say how much I love the internal architectural layout of the office and would like to take the time to appreciate its contribution to the positive work environment. I would also like to take the time to appreciate the kitchen areas on every floor and their cute but practical layout, I have much enjoyed using the facilities to make hot chocolates.