 Good afternoon everyone and welcome to today's session which is a live interview with the Mayor's Fund for London as part of the University of Greenwich's Careers and Charities Week. So today I'll be interviewing three professionals who are either engaged with or employed by the Mayor's Fund for London about their experiences working within this charity but also the sector in more general terms. The Mayor's Fund for London are a charity that champions opportunities for young Londoners from low-income backgrounds and they do so by focusing on three key areas which are well-being, skills and employment and enterprise. So without further ado I'd like to start today's interview and just to repeat so please note that this session is being recorded and it will be published on the University of Greenwich's Employability YouTube playlist so bear that in mind later on when we start asking questions. So the first question that I've got for our panellists is please could you introduce yourselves so tell us your name, the title of the role that you're working with at the Mayor's Fund for London. So who would like to go first? Hi everyone, my name's Belle and so I work at the Mayor's Fund for London as a project officer and I work on delivering the Mayor's Entrepreneur Programme. I can go next. I'm Susanna, I am a current final year student at Greenwich and I'm a Mayor's Entrepreneur Intern. And I'm Kate and I'm a youth board member with Amethau and I'm also an Employability Champion here at the University of Greenwich. Just to pick up on those so Kate could you tell us a little bit more about what being a youth board member actually entails in terms of the work that you do? Yes, absolutely. So I started being on the youth boards from last September and basically it's a group of individuals so the board consists of a mix of ages ranging from 16 to 24 and we are all that different stages in our education and employment and we have very diverse lives experiences and from that on we meet every month to discuss our ideas and then basically voice young Londoners' views and ideas. Thank you. So you've kind of covered this a little bit so I'll move on to either Belle or Susanna but how did you first hear about and become involved with the Mayor's Fund for London and can you share a little more detail about your role? So we've got your titles but could you flesh it out a little bit for us please? Yeah, absolutely. So I've been working at Mayor's Fund for London for sort of around seven to eight months and so my role involved delivering two arms of the Mayor's Entrepreneur Programme. So the first wing is the competition which invites sort of London's university students to submit a sustainable business idea that sort of contributes to making London cleaner, greener and ready for the future and so I also organise a sort of series of workshops that students come to attend to see if they think that entrepreneurship is a viable career path and the second arm of the programme is supporting London students in the form of internships so we have around 30 interns at the moment and I sort of organise and manage them. Susanna, do you want to go next? Yeah, so I first heard about the competition and not the internship so when I heard about the competition I was in my second year and it was during my lecture so someone came to do a shout out. I didn't apply back then because my business wouldn't fit into like the categories but a few months later I received like an email from the generator which is our Enterprise Hub at the Uni about the internship and that might be applied straight away since I studied entrepreneurship and I do one of my own business I thought it would be quite fitting and my role, so my internship involves promoting the competition to students at my university so I did lecture shout outs, spoke at events and this started in October so it was like a six month internship ending in April. There's also different working groups some part of two the case studies group and then the social media groups so in the case studies group we worked to interview previous winners, write blog posts, create graphics for them and then for the social media group we also make the content and post on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. I was mostly involved in the Instagram part of things and also did some improvements to the account. Really and thank you so much and could you just tell us what your business is please? Susanna? So currently I have a blog that I'm working on right now in my final year as well as part of like my business creation project. Yeah amazing thank you. Now that's really interesting because I think you've got that pathway of getting in touch with the generator and being engaged with them and then hearing about the competition and then landing your internship as part of that pathway so I think that's a really interesting kind of framework to get to where you are now. So thank you all very much so the next question is that MFL focuses on three key areas well-being skills and employment and enterprise as we've talked about briefly. Can you each tell me a little bit more about these three areas and how this features in your work and how the MFL focuses on improving investment and opportunities within these areas? It's quite a big question so if you want me to repeat any of that just let me know. Do you want us to talk about each of them or just take one each? Take one each actually that might be a good a good way to do it. So I'm happy to go first so I obviously work on the MERS entrepreneur program so I sort of with the sort of main area that I focus on delivering is employment at the enterprise. I know that there's a lots of other programs like access aspiration in MERS for London that also sort of focuses on this key area and then so what we sort of do broadly in terms of employment enterprise is we try our best to increase awareness of employability opportunities ensure that people are sort of aware of the skills needed to sort of get there and we sort of do this from you know 15, 16 year olds all up to sort of you know 24 plus. So we really do try and prepare people for sort of the next stage of their life when they're going to get into roles and make sure they realise that you know it is accessible for everyone and how they can sort of better access employers and what was the other part of the question? Sorry I couldn't. No worries at all. So it was how the MERS fund for London focuses on improving investment and opportunities in this area. So I think you've kind of covered that a little bit but was there anything else you wanted to add to that? Okay one question that I would ask would be because this is an area that is constantly developing so employment and skills there's always new opportunities coming up and new challenges what would you say is the one of the biggest barriers or challenges that you face in in making that such a crucial focus? I think one of the biggest barriers is actually engagement and engagement from sort of you know students and people sometimes they don't realise that resource is out there or they don't feel like they can access it so I think that is a really big challenge for us is sort of ensuring that everyone knows that this is an opportunity for them. That's great thank you. Kate would you like to speak next? Yeah sure so I think I can talk about a little bit of the well-being side of things and also kind of the opportunities in terms of employment as well so you know the whole reason that we have this youth board is kind of the co-creation that MFL is you know saying over and over again so we're co-creating something bigger so for example one of the project that I was involved with this year was co-creating the diversity pledge which is basically holds MFL accountable for involving the youth board in meaningful decision making and also measuring success is a big part of that so you know in terms of kind of what that was talking about engagement so you know our youth board how are we engaging and then you know what kind of opportunities are being involved with so I think what MFL does really really well is co-creating that it's not just you know MFL saying something but then also co-creating that with the youth board and then involving us with every single decision making around the youth board and I think that's really really important so I think those are opportunities for MFL and then well-being is really important part of that as well you know we check in with each other you know every meeting just to make sure we're you know well not just not just being there physically but then also being there mentally so you can really focus on that so it's been a wonderful experience. That's really interesting and just as you were talking I was thinking about how the input that you would have through the youth board and that knock-on effect that that your decision making and your holding holding decision makers to account would have on the well-being of the young people of London as well so is there anything that you could say about that about how your input and your engagement with the board can then have that impact on the young Londoners that the Mayor's Fund for London helped to support? Yes absolutely so there was another I think a really really good example here that we worked with the kitchen social so one of the parts of Mayor's Fund for London and what they do is they make ready-to-eat meals or like kind of I would say like a hello fresh kind of situation in terms of you have everything in one package in terms of all the basic ingredients and then you can take it home and then you cook it so for example they came to the youth board the social kitchen social parts of Mayor's Fund for London came to the youth board and asked they gave us these packages different kind of recipes in them and they asked us to make it and give feedback on is this something that you would be you know is there enough information in the recipe and and you know the instructions is it you know the food size the portion the the ingredients everything is it is it something that is working and we have to write like a whole list and things of like you know anything from the packaging the instructions anything from you know making it where there are any difficulties where there any any information missing that would have been nice and I think you know we feed this back and then they can take this away in terms of you know make those changes so I think you obviously we've done that not that to not too long ago so probably they're not in a place yet in terms of our feedbacks but I think that's such a good example of how they try to involve us every single opportunity that they have yeah that sounds that's a great example so it's kind of having that genuine co-creation um and and taking that feedback on board so not just having it as lip service really speaking with young people who who would would have the the understanding of what would be beneficial um and using that feedback to really improve the service that is provided thank you Kate um Susanna did you have anything that you wanted to add in terms of well-being skills or employment and enterprise yeah so um as an intern I think the entrepreneur intern program is a really great way for students to get employment experience while learning a lot of skills so there's a lot of skills like communication and teamwork and public speaking and time management which are all useful in the workplace and in my future career as well and also like the intern positions having like a lot of them every year increases the opportunity for more students to take part so I think that's another great thing that the mayor's fund does in terms of increasing opportunities so they make it like there's a lot of positions and they all like so everyone has like a chance to experience the internship perfect thank you um so my next question is did you have previous experience working with the charity sector before joining mayor's fund for London if so please tell us a little bit more um and if you didn't please tell us a little bit about your experience so far working with this sector um so who would like to go first yeah I can go first so um I've been working at the students union um at Greenwich since September 2021 so that's a bit of experience in the charity sector so I started as a global ambassador and then I was promoted to team leader and then shortly after I started my internship at the mayor's fund so I've been in charities pretty much my entire like university experience um yeah and how have you how have you found gaining experience in the charity sector alongside studying it's definitely challenging to like balance everything but that's another skill that I've gained it's like time managing all of the projects that I'm working on um but I definitely like it it's all really very flexible and gives me a lot of um experience in the workplace as well and later on I can talk about my future goals as well but it all basically is charities so yeah brilliant thank you so much um Kate did you want to go next yeah absolutely so um I had a bit of a journey in terms of uh you know as in Susanna as well uh with the charity sector so in my first year at university I joined Rechelt which is another charity organization based on mentoring so we go actually into the classrooms to help students who might be struggling in terms of their studies or just their confidence so we go in there every week and it was like a five or six months program that we do so I was doing that last year um and it was absolutely amazing to see for me personally of how the you know how the charity sector really really helps and obviously with young people um as well so that was a great experience that I had but then obviously for our second year I had a bit more commitment with university and a couple of other things so I was really looking to still make an impact because that was you know very important from the start for me to make an actual impact and then you'd be on the ground kind of um so for my for my second year at university for this year uh I joined the youth board with with MFL um and I think there's just so many myths around the charity sector when it when it comes uh when it comes to the sector uh which is quite sad and um and when I started working with you know multiple charities or desk points uh I realized like the you know opportunities the positions they're just so varied and diverse and you know kind of you know the flexibility that we were talking about uh but then also just you know the the position the kind of positions that you have you know in the beginning I thought it's only you know maybe just marketing or fundraising but it's so much more than that and and I think it really shows especially being on the youth board with MFL it just really shows that you can be involved in so many things like you know keep creating recipes um so for me that was a truly learning experience uh to see that thank you and just to follow up on that do you feel that your experience volunteering and being engaged in the youth board has been really really impactful in terms of understanding the the different variety of career opportunities within the sector yes definitely so one thing that we do with the youth board is when we started so basically from the first week on first month on we um had all parts of MFL and so all of the different departments in to come in and explain a little bit about what they do so you know they would come in and you know explain that so we have a broader understanding of their roles and not just um you know what does the charity do in in terms of its mission but what does the charity do in terms of people in the in the organization so that you know we you know every month we've been doing that and uh you know understanding different departments and and you know I think being exposed to so many different departments you know really broadens my perspective in terms of all the different kind of positions that I was as I said never thought I would uh would see in the charity sector so it's been truly an important experience for me and just to go back to a little bit about impact I think um you know being on the youth board and obviously mentoring is quite two different things uh in terms of impact because one you're delivering impact right you know in front of you and with the youth board I think it's a longer term thing uh but I do think we're still making a lot of important impact especially in MFL and and kind of providing that of you know the voice of London's youth brilliant thank you um Bell did you want me to repeat the question because I know that was a little it was a while ago now yeah no worries um so did you have any previous experience working within the charity sector before joining Mezfun for London if so could you tell us a little bit about this yeah sure but before um working for Mezfun for London's I sort of doing my master's here alongside that I worked for a charity I worked at Stepney City Farm which sort of involved living education and food programs um and working with sort of more people from low income backgrounds with disabilities sort of educating people on the importance of living sustainably but also sort of as a way of sort of therapy for them um sort of explore you know who they are what they are and what they like doing it just sort of is a bit of breath breath of fresh air for them um it was a fantastic opportunity and I would really recommend anyone to do it it was really sort of easy to do alongside my master's um and then there are several days that you can sort of go and maybe volunteer if you'd like to and it's just a really fantastic opportunity it is a really good sort of stepping stone into seeing what charities do whilst also actually having quite a lot of fun Amazing thank you and I think that um brings us quite nicely onto the next question which is what skills do you think what kind of skills do you think are required to work for a funding charity like Mezfun for London and how do these differ from the skills required to work in frontline roles? So I think broadly speaking there are a lot there are quite a lot of skills actually you know are applicable to both um but also I'll start with those that are sort of you know applicable to both so I think organisation and time management is so so important you know you'll often find yourself working to deadlines and working on different elements programmes or you know you're helping write different applications for funding so it's very very important that you sort of spread your time evenly to ensure that you know all tasks are completed to the highest level um the next one is probably patience and enthusiasm I think patience is so so important within the charity one thing you all come to realise and one thing I will let you know now if you're thinking about doing it is that things do take time um especially within the charity sector so when you're sort of relying on funding from external sources and your applications you know you're not everyone's priority you have to really learn that but you've got to stick with it and the good things will come I promise eventually you just got away and enthusiasm is really also really really important it is so so fundamental that you are enthusiastic and passionate about the charity you're working for and its goals and I think that being like that allows you to really really become invested in it just encourages you to just you know continue and make such a big difference and I think one more sorry if I'm speaking too much is um teamwork I think within the charity sector is such a big thing you will find yourself even if you do focus on individual tasks you will find yourself working with others on programs to reach a common goal and this makes it so so important sort of engage and communicate effectively with others to ensure that sort of a level of fluidity is maintained I think that's really important and the one skill that I think is quite important mainly for sort of fundraising side of things is networking just like in the corporate world you know networking is really important the same applies for the charity sector fundamentally charities rely and need money to make a difference and then sort of work really effectively and establishing continuously establishing relationships with new partners companies organizations is so so important because this funding is you know essential um so I would just say jumping on any opportunity to network is really really important brilliant thank you and I just as you were talking I was thinking about the idea of impact and the fact that impact regardless if you're frontline or organizational developmental impact does have that time frame with it um so you're not going to have that immediate impact or you might do in some circumstances but that it's a long lasting particularly if you're working on specific programs where there are aims and you have a certain level of number of years through which that funding is spread you can manage that impact throughout but it's all about waiting for it to be to be meaningful um Kate did you want to go next and let me know if you want me to repeat the question no that's all right it's about skills I if I remember correctly yeah um but I mean about I mean you went through quite a lot of skills and I think all of them are so valid and then I feel the same in a lot of cases but I think in respect to the youth wars I would say a communication and also like the time management organization of that um and then also I loved when you mentioned patients because that's what we you know sometimes and especially you know there are quite a few of us in terms of on the youth boards and you know a lot of sometimes opposing views but you know we have to be able to talk about them and you know openly and transparently uh and you know judgment is there is no place for judgment there is no place for uh being impatient with one another because that's what we're here for to talk about them so um so I think these I mean all of them who you've said previously I do 100 agree with but I think in terms of youth boards your communication and also you know developing that communication skills and also you know I'm not giving um the opportunities to you know speak on certain events uh and I know a couple of us had the opportunity to go and talk to some of the the companies I'm also is involved with to talk about how to attract diverse you know young diverse talent and you know how to do that so you know having those speaking opportunities you know in developing those skills uh it's just the forefront of what we do perfect thank you Kate. Susanna did you want to go next? Yeah um I can agree with um everything you all said and just to expand a bit on the communication side um so in my internship I think communication is a really important skill to have because we need to report to a lot of different people so the project officers like Val and then also the different team members because we have teams we have senior interns who like are the team leaders of a small group we also have the small group leaders like the case studies groups or the social media groups that I'm a part of and then also keeping in um communication with the lecturers and other staff members that we're promoting the competition to um and arranging the shoutouts and events that we're speaking at so generally like communication I think is a really big skill that's important but that's also like improved throughout the internship and generally like the work. Brilliant thank you yeah I think I can see coming free from all of you as well as there's that need to have those coordination skills and I guess that comes with organization but speaking to different people maintaining those networks and making sure that you're keeping on top of everything it's all comes into that coordination which is vital for so many different careers and it's so transferable to different settings as well so our next question is for any students who are interested in becoming involved with the Mayor's Fund for London or similar charities while studying and beyond their graduation what advice would you give to those students? We will start with you Susanna. I think it's important to choose one to work for if you have the option to choose whatever you want to work for is to choose a charity that you're really passionate about like for me the internship is about entrepreneurship and that's something that I really care about and that I'm really interested in so it just gives me that extra like passion to do my best and not just do like the bare minimum but also I get involved for example getting involved in two working groups was my personal choice I could have just done one but I decided to do two just to take the opportunity and because of my involvement I was also able to ask for references for future jobs I was able to get opportunities like speaking at this panel or speaking other panels that I've done so and the generator so generally just choosing one that you're passionate about so that you can give that extra bit like so that you can go the extra mile and not just do the bare minimum because you're going to get out of it what you kind of put in I think so that would be my advice I think that's really great advice as well because yeah as you said if you are particularly studying alongside university you want something that's going to keep that momentum going and that you're going to be really interested in and passionate about and that you're going to get get that that outcome out of that you can then take forward into into a similar career or something related Kate did you want to go next yeah so I think you know if you're interested in the charity sector you know it doesn't have to be Mayor's Front for London but any charity I really do recommend you just to go out into your own community and look around you know your own borough your own community and see what what is there to get involved with or if you have like a really clear idea of you know I'm interested in this and I really want to do more in that then you know go on LinkedIn find those people who are always doing those roles and just you know it doesn't have to be your whole career it could be you know just something that you do next to university and I think there's you know two important points to point out for me as well when I started working with charities one is obviously your personal goal and personal mission of making an impact if that's what you want to do and then also in terms of employability and I just have to speak on this just because I do work for the employability office and you know one of the aspects is quite important like you know when you go for for those graduate roles during those internships and all of that when people and you know hiring managers recruiters see that that you've you know you went above and beyond you know you you've done more than just your degree then they will be you know they will see that that you are good candidates and then you know you have all those skills that we just we just talked about you know from organization to communication to presentation and you know as Libby was saying that those are all very transferable skills that you can you know then go on to your to your you know selected industry and then you can just say yeah you know I've been there and done all of these and then you know they will see that that you know you went above and beyond in terms of your university and your extracurricular activities so it does really really help and you know goes a long way and you're also make an impact in people's life and you know I do recommend Mayor's Fund for London and we will be starting the recruitment for for the youth board shortly so so I do recommend you know coming on board you know and you know voicing your ideas and you know you don't have to have it all figured out I think that's really really important even if you're just interested you don't have you know you don't have to have a clear plan of like okay this is what I'm doing after graduation and this is what I'm doing next but just you know have a bit of you know like I guess take a bit of time to explore take a bit of time to look around you and see what else can you get involved with and you know maybe that's going to be you know your lane and that's where you know where you want to be and you find your real passion and that's amazing or maybe you're not but I think you know all of these experiences all the rights and all the wrongs you know lead you to your path so I do recommend getting involved thanks Kate I think again that's a really good experience particularly for anyone who is studying and looking to gain that experience alongside their studies one thing I would say is that yeah volunteering might not be possible or accessible for everyone but there are ways there are opportunities that have less intense commitment hours but there are also lots and lots of modules within lots of programs within Greenwich because we have such a high employability focus that have work experience built into those and that might be somewhere where you could think oh this is where I want to get experience with the charity that I've done a bit of research in and which I would like to maybe build a career in this area that's an opportunity to use that work experience hours that are integral to those modules to getting that experience and then using that for your employability in the future and to give back and fulfill a personal goal um so Belle I'll come to you next yeah I think really really nicely I think if there's one thing that I can add which I would say always know that there is absolutely no harm in getting in contact with the charity directly if they don't have you know all these listed opportunities nothing is lost if you just drop someone an email and just say hi I'm really interested in in your charity would there would be a need some transport to do some work experience or get involved in any way I can I would really really urge you to do that yeah another great piece of advice because I know from my previous student-facing role I always used to suggest that to students particularly if they were looking for work experience and there was this misconception that that would be irritating for the charity or that they would never hear back from the charity and the chances are sometimes you might not hear back but you may hear back from one that you're really interested in so as Belle said there's there's nothing to lose in reaching out directly um okay thank you everyone so our next question is what do you think is the biggest myth about the charity sector I will start with Kate for this one all right well if I can do like a little personal plug I guess on the your student portals I did write a little article about misconceptions in the charity sector so please do please do um so you know if you have a little bit of time please read that it's all about those misconceptions but I think you know during my research when I was doing that article um the you know one of the biggest ones and I think I mentioned this already but the positions are valuable um you know I literally thought it's only you know marketing and fundraising and you know all of that but it's so much more and so much more diverse than you will think and that you know and also another very important one is that there are graduate opportunities in the sector uh and you know it took me a little you know research to realize that that you can actually do you know a graduate program uh to go into a charity sector and um we had a lovely interview with somebody from the Bexley community house Greenwich Bexley community hospice and you know she was talking about you know she's doing a rotational one so you know she's spending some time in different departments in you know in the charity sector which is absolutely amazing um so you know please if you have some time please do read my little article on the misconceptions of the charity sector um and yeah you you know you will hear from me in more detail in that one and just to say so the interview the filmed interview that Kate mentioned with Simran from Greenwich and Bexley community hospice um will be uploaded onto the University of Greenwich's employability playlist tomorrow on YouTube um so yeah keep your eyes peeled for that and we will be sending out communications about that towards the end of this week um so Belle if we come to you next yeah I think I probably have you just echo what what Kate just said actually because they're and particularly in terms of graduate opportunities there are graduate opportunities they really are and if it's not if it might not be you know this labelled grad scheme or graduate job you can get into these jobs you can be a project officer what you know you can be welcome in the program I you know I've just finished my master's I am a graduate I've managed to get a job so you know it you can you know you can don't don't think oh no I can't do like you can do that you know there's plenty and plenty of opportunities and ways to get in yeah and I think just to add on to that it's about um looking at the skills that you've gained through university and any experience that you've got so far so even if you've got um even if you don't feel like you've got relevant experience there'll be so many skills and competencies that you've pulled out of any job that you've done or any volunteering or work experience that you've gained that can be applied to the competencies that are asked for from that job um so if you are concerned or don't feel like you've got the the person specification that a job is asking for I would really encourage you to come to the employability service and have a one-to-one appointment with one of our skills advisors particularly if there is a specific role that you want to apply for within the sector and they can help you identify how your skills match with the job specification um so Susanna if we go to you next yeah I mean I definitely agree with um what you said I think maybe another myth is that every charity is the same or like they operate in the same way but I think the sector is very diverse with like different goals every charity has different goals and they all work in different environments I also think it's more flexible than I thought it would be in terms of like what you can do in your role um it's not just like the work you do in your specific role but you can branch out however you're interested in it if it allows but my job so far charities have allowed that so I think that might also be um a myth that you need to stay in your specific role and you not only need to do that that job you can definitely be flexible um if your role allows it yeah I would completely echo that so from a previous role that I worked in at a charity um I was I was delivering a frontline programme and I had a real interest in supporting the well-being and the mental health of the clients that I was working with and I expressed this to my manager and I was put on well-being and mental health um first aid training to kind of fulfill that that interest of mine which I was then able to take on to future roles um so yeah I think there's definitely scope from my experience anyway of identifying where you want to develop your skills and how this can fit into your current role and how and how developmental that role becomes then as well because you've got skills that you might not necessarily have had when you started that you can offer for additional capacity um thank you all very much for those insights so the next question is we've touched on this a little bit but would you consider building a career within the charity sector and if so why so I'm going to start with Belle for this one because you are actively building a career within the sector so if you could just give us a little bit of information on that question please yeah sure uh I think yeah I would absolutely love to continue building a career in the charity sector I think the main sort of aspect that drives this is the sort of the ability to make a difference in the reward that comes with that it's just really lovely and I feel like it's really it is a very beautiful experience to be able to sort of facilitate improving people's life outcomes over that these sort of to do with quality of life or employability skills and I would feel really if you're thinking about it or being a bit hesitant I would really urge you just to explore the opportunities um because you know the reward is so so great really and thank you um so Kate do you want to go next um yeah sure so sorry can you repeat the question sorry of course no worries so would you consider building a career in the charity sector and if so why okay so um I definitely do consider building you know my career in the charity sector but I will be very honest I don't know what I want to do after graduation and you know to have one year my third year left here at Greenwich um I don't really know where where my career path will take me but I do hundred percent um see and feel that all of these experiences that I had in the charity sector you contributed so much to have a much more diverse point of view and then you know just to realize how much more is out there or more opportunities are out there uh for me so I can consider for my future brilliant thank you and Susanna I know you mentioned that you are looking to build a career in the charity sector earlier um so can you tell us a little bit more about this please yeah so I'm definitely um considering it and um my next step after uni and now is also working at a charity um I think it's a great way to make a positive impact um and like make a difference like Belle said um yeah so I got a job offer a couple weeks ago to work at the Students Union in the Napier University which is in Edinburgh so I'm going to be moving up there in May um and continuing my work at charities for now we'll see how it's going to go but um the role is basically an event coordinator um it kind of aligns with what I've been doing at the current Students Union as a team leader and also um you know at the internship with um doing the marketing things as well so yeah I'm really excited for it and yeah we'll see how it's going to go congratulations that's really exciting um yeah I'm really pleased for you and I hope this this opportunity is fantastic um so that kind of we've kind of covered this already but the final question that I've got for all of you is what's next for you um so we'll start with we've already kind of identified what's next for you in terms of jobs Susanna could you tell us so you're in your final year now aren't you um so what's in terms of like the next few months what have you got in store for your final year before you move you move for your new job so my last month here is really busy um I'm trying to finish up my dissertation project um also like the last couple weeks at the mayor's um transfer and internship and I'm also in an actus which is a society here at Greenwich and we made it to the finals of the national UK wide competition so we're going to be presenting as well in April so we're currently preparing for our presentation for that so um yeah and also finishing up my work at the GSU as well like having my last couple weeks of preparing a handover plan for the next team leader if they're gonna promote someone else to fill my role but yeah just also trying to enjoy living in London for the last month as well um so yeah amazing thank you so much um and then Belle so I know that you've been working with Mayor's Fund for London for was it six or seven months now um so are there any major projects that you're going to be working on in the next few months um and just looking ahead so after you've finished with your role at Mayor's Fund for London what sort of work do you see yourself going into? So we're sort of coming near to the end of this sort of rotate time of the program so about to have the final and award spend on the 9th of May and so that sort of has a bit of closure in that in that sense but then we've got a sort plan for the year ahead with the program running again um I'm also going to do a project management course so sort of further my knowledge and some of the expertise which will be good um and in terms of leaving Mayor's Fund or when the time comes to leave or move on um I would definitely love to continue working for a charity and I think it will be um more because I sort of I specialise in food and sort of food policy nutrition it will be working for a charity sort of delivering the food program I hope and yeah we'll just see. That sounds really exciting can I just ask so the project management course that you're doing is that through Mayor's Fund for London or are you doing that externally? Yeah so it is through Mayor's Fund for London so another thing probably what it's quite nice to add is that there is actually always opportunities to further your skills um you know whether it be you know Excel course project management course or anything in between there is that opportunity for them to sort of fund you doing that but you know if they don't fund you you can also sit alongside someone who couldn't you know just sort of train you we have Chris who's head of the comms team at Mayor's Fund for London he's also always very willing to just let people sit with him to sort of find out more info so yeah if you ever do get into the role you're really worried that you're not going to give it something or I think within me I need some more training there's always that opportunity. Perfect thank you and finally Kate what's next for you? Yeah so I mean about brought up a really nice point around training and you know Mayor's Fund for London is great with that and even you know us on the youth board we utilise that as well so we have you know ability to take courses on public speaking and then you know mental health so it's quite nice so I think I will be looking into that shortly as well to develop my own own skills and my knowledge. In terms of like life I am a second year advertising and digital marketing students here at Greenwich and we'll be moving on for my third year and my final year here in Greenwich for next year. It was a really exciting time you know leading up to to this call but you know the last couple of weeks I was on a conference at the NUS national conference you know as a delegate which I was elected for by my peers here at Greenwich University and I was a delegate as you know Greenwich University there which was you know a great way for me to expand my knowledge on you know student union issues and kind of national matters and then you know really hopefully I mean obviously we don't have confirmation on this but hopefully you know joining the youth board again for next year and then also staying in my employability champion role for next year as well but yeah those are all nothing is confirmed yet but you know I hope to be hope to be in the same role next year as well. Fantastic so that's brought us up to 10 to 5 so I'm just going to have a look at the people that we've got in the call if anyone has a question and you're comfortable putting your camera on or turning your microphone on please feel free to do so or pop your hand up and I can work out who wants to ask a question but you're also welcome to write a question in the chat box as well. Do we have any questions oh I can see someone writing and let me see if anyone's got their hand up. We'll just wait for any questions to come through we've got a few people typing now whilst we're waiting I'll just ask a little bit more about the did you say it's the interviews for the youth board that you'll be doing coming up Kate. Yeah so one kind of interesting thing that I didn't even know how that happened so that when I was recruited for the youth board on my interview panel there were people on the youth board and I just thought that's like a coincidence on my interview but it turned out it was for everyone else so what you know as I kind of mentioned co-creation a little bit earlier but it's you know in Mayors for film though that's huge that's really important for them so you know when they did the recruitment for our youth boards that people previously on the youth board were on the panel just to make sure that you know they are aligned with you know Mayors for like the values the mission that Mayors front for London has so yeah hopefully we're coming up to the not even actually 100 sure when is the recruitment for that but yeah we will be you know part of that as well so you know we can you know collect people like sorry not collect but you know have people who are like minded as us. Yeah fantastic we've just had a question come through that says I am currently doing an MBA international business and I'm looking for an internship opportunity if you can share any links to apply or or get an idea about the process that will be helpful so at the moment there aren't any vacancies advertised on Mayors for London website but as Bella was saying earlier there's no harm in getting in touch directly with the charity and kind of talking about the kind of opportunity that you're interested in because that you might speak with someone who has an idea or has knows that there is an internship opportunity coming up in the foreseeable future so yeah I would definitely recommend getting in touch but I'm also going to send the link to the website vacancy page which you can keep an eye on and just check that regularly to see if opportunities come up we've got a few more people typing questions of course so we will be recruiting for that in July July I think so I think it's July well it will we will be rolling out sort of application process in July so if you keep your eyes peeled on the website that we can also share it with we'll share it with every uni so they can promote that opportunity to you but if you just want to keep that in mind if you are looking to apply we'd love to sort of receive an application have a read through fantastic and how many interns do you recruit each each period 30 30 wow okay yeah yeah and she wants to tell you a little bit about sort of the process and what it involved so I think there was an application form I don't quite remember and then I think I had a CV as well and then I was invited to do an interview which I did I think it wasn't like September like beginning of September end of August and then I got an email that I shortlisted and I had to provide a bunch of documents and information just like general things for jobs like your address a bunch of documents basically and then it started in October so that was the application process like briefly and how did you find the interview process um I honestly don't remember much about it but I think it was really good it was an online interview um I was asked some questions about like I think there was some situational questions like tell me about a time that you did whatever like those kind of questions um but yeah it was a while ago now but I don't remember being I don't remember being like difficult or anything I thought it was just really nice and like conversational also like learning about the internship as well it wasn't just like a one-way questions to me and I had to like answer everything oh that was quite nice brilliant thank you um so we've got a few questions in the chat so one says I'm a second year adult nursing student and I'm trying to set up my own charity organization how can I get help with this um so I've got an idea but did anyone want to um flag any ideas that they might have before I no okay cool um so I would recommend if you get in touch with our generator team they might be able to support you with ideas around um setting up your own social enterprise or your own charity I know that they are running a session or a hackathon I can't remember if it's a session or if it's a two-day hack around social enterprises in the next few months so if you keep an eye on your emails to see if something comes through about that that might be helpful um I know there is a big difference in setting up a charity and a social enterprise but it might be useful for getting you starting thinking about the kinds of things you'll need to set up that kind of charity organization I would also recommend booking an appointment with our employability skills advisors so I'm going to find the link for that and I'll pop it in the chat um but if you speak with one of them about the idea that you've got and the resources that you have so far or the resources that you need they can really look into your um your idea and support you with the next steps to try and get that off the ground um so I'll find the link for that now um and then so we've got another question which says hi thank you for this lovely session do you have graduate roles or just internships um so as Belle was saying earlier like there's lots of graduate roles that aren't necessarily called graduate roles that you might be eligible to apply for um Belle did you want to just have a have some input on this one I'll find the link for um one-to-one appointments thank you that's fine so at the moment in on the mayor's entrepreneur team there will only be uh internships available but there will I know across across the whole of mayor's fund there will because there are always opportunities that come available just because there aren't there isn't one right now doesn't mean that it won't pop up you know next week or in the future so I just keep your eyes peeled and see another good site I would use is charity job um that is a fantastic site honestly you should everyone should go on that they do internship jobs and should have a graduate all of everything and fun to do with charity so definitely definitely have a look on there thank you I'm going to put the link for charity jobs in the chat as well because yeah I use charity jobs every day to do outreach for new charities that I'm working with oh thank you Si so my colleague Si has just put the the link to book a once one appointment with one of our employability skills advisors into the chat um I've just seen a further question which says I'm an MSc construction project management um which charity can be helpful in this area so just just to piggyback on what Belle said about charity jobs I would say that's a great place to start so look on charity jobs and maybe put in some keywords that relate to your program or the kind of role that you want to get into so I think that's what we'll that's what will be impacted is the kind of role that you're looking to work in um so if you start by looking on charity jobs that can help you gain an understanding of what kind of charities are working within this area um and if you look onto the websites of those charities you'll also see information about the partners that they are working with and that can kind of broaden your understanding as well um and previously Belle mentioned about networking and how important that is within the sector so if you do use LinkedIn that can be another area where you can look at different charities that work within construction um to try and get an understanding of of what the sector looks like within that area um I'll just see if there's any other questions but again as well I would recommend speaking with a one-to-one um in in a one-to-one appointment with a skills advisor on that as well so we have skills advisors for specific faculties so yeah I would recommend speaking with them and say you want to get some experience with the charity. Does anyone have any other questions before we close today's session? No worries at all um if anyone doesn't have any questions you can also email me if you have any questions at a later date and I can try and find out some answers for you or I can direct you towards the the best possible source of advice or support for that question so I've just put my email address in the chat so if there's anything else that springs to mind this evening or tomorrow when you're reflecting on the conversations that we've had today feel free to drop me an email um and thank you to everyone who attended today's session but a huge thank you to Belle, Susanna and Kate for your insights and for getting involved I'm really helping our team to increase student awareness and understanding both of the Mayor's Fund for London but also working within the charity sector. I can see from the comments in the chat that the students that are available today have found it really useful and I know that this conversation will be really useful for students across the university once we've can publishize the recording of today's session so thank you all very much and we look forward to welcoming you back onto campus at some point.