Tiana Hammond: A truly amazing work experience week

Written by Tiana Hammond, work experience student

Hello All!

My name is Tiana Hammond, a Year 10 student from Dartford grammar school for girls. This week I had the pleasure of completing my work experience at ELBA from the 8th-12th of July which was a truly amazing experience.

On the first day I was warmly welcomed and introduced to the workspace by the ELBA team. On the day of introduction I received an overview of ELBA as a charity and the structure of the organisation.

I learned alot about how the company works as a ‘hybrid’ between the corporate world and as a non-profit organisation which really broadened my knowledge as I had not been exposed to this type of business model before.

During my placement I shadowed a few meetings – first with the challenge team. It was great to see how everyone fed back to the group and how they were able to adapt to setbacks faced in their team. My favourite meeting was the ‘ESG’ meeting. Where I learnt about the importance and role that CSR & ESG has in the workspace and the key differences.

The meeting really helped me understand the shift in priorities of corporate companies and their role to give back to communities. This sparked questions as to whether these businesses see charitable activities as a tick box exercise and how ELBA strives to prove how much more than this they really are.

It was fantastic to learn about projects ELBA completes throughout the year, with the two that most intrigued me being the Toy Appeal run by the Challenge team, and Equibalance, led by the Employment team. I think giving away toys at Christmas time is such a great concept and I am absolutely certain it puts a lot of smiles on faces and is a very fun experience for the staff to be involved in, whilst also including corporate partners. Projects like Equibalance are so vital in helping young students from a Global majority background and underrepresented groups, to feel empowered in pursuing a career in the corporate industry. I worked closely with Samie throughout the week, who took me through employability skill workshops which have helped not only boost my professional profile but my confidence in my career pathway. As a young person who would like to go into the real estate sector, hearing about Equibalance has definitely sparked my interest and has made me most certainly want to achieve something similar to help young black women like myself in the future. Through the guidance of Samie I was able to establish a mentor with one of the corporate partners. I look forward to establishing the mentorship relationship in the next few weeks.

On Tuesday I was able to help a member of the employment team with admin work regarding applications for a corporate opportunity, an amazing opportunity for first year students to take part in a paid internship. This involved making phone calls, which at first was quite daunting but I soon learned from many phone calls I had made how to remain calm and composed and helped develop my improvisation skills when questions were asked.

I had the opportunity to see some of ELBA corporate partners in action volunteering at a farm. It was lovely to take some pictures and see the volunteers so enthusiastic to help.

Overall my work experience at ELBA was informative and insightful. My most memorable moments were discussions I had with ELBA team members, where they gave me advice on how to navigate through my decision making of apprenticeships and going to university. I now have a clear understanding of how to go about my options when I enter sixth form. I also enjoyed the professionalism established at ELBA and being able to embed myself in a working environment.

Lastly, I will miss my supervisor Samie John who worked with me closely throughout the week, helping me establish a start to my professional career and overall ensuring my experience was as non-intimidating as possible, which I am eternally grateful for.

Thanks ELBA!

To stay up to date with the latest news, opportunities and success stories, please sign up to receive our monthly newsletter, here.