Hello,
My last day at work left me very nostalgic. I sat at my desk reviewing the 20 days I spent in the organisation, the high and lows, the challenges and the opportunities. This internship provided me with the ability to take decisions for the future and to have a standing about what I want to do with my career. But most importantly, I learnt real life practice and it taught invaluable lessons. For instance, working in a team did not represent such a challenge at the university because we almost knew each other. At work, it is working with complete strangers and to collaborate with another mindset of people, with different abilities and different perspectives. The greatest of all is to able to surpass the differences and work towards a common goal.
It also taught me about handling stressful situations, respecting the authority and having greater self confidence. Many a times it would happen that I felt myself under pressure when I was called in the director's office and during my first week of the internship, I had learnt that people treat you the way you give them the opportunity to. And then gradually I learnt about believing in the work I was presenting.
It would be unfair not to mention that I had better grasped the modules of PR Theories and PR Techniques when I had time because usually when I would return home from work, I would have to review the notes again, to remember the formats and some of the strategies. I felt so grateful for having saved the slides of the PR Theories because during my internship I had to elaborate strategies that concerned employee relations and Google proved to be not that much of a help. I would never have imagined that the first module of my three year's degree would be so helpful for my last semester.
Now it is time to write the report and though it is very bulky, each milestone completed leaves a void for it is the realisation of the moments passed at work, at the university and the precious friends that all contributed in this journey.
Thank you bloggers for sharing your experiences with everyone.
Regards
Divya Ruggoo
Showing posts with label #15636429. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #15636429. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
The Importance of Online Presence
Hello,
Heading to the last week of my internship, I was asked to propose some ideas to the ECCEA to make it more connected. I was surprised to see that the organisation's website was not up-to-date and that it had no other online presence except of the website.
The task was not difficult because it was all about 'Facebooking' and showing the importance of having a well presented website and a YouTube account. Taking into account the stakeholders of the organisation, I prepared a brief that would fit the personality of the ECCEA, the 'Whys' and the importance of polishing an image for external communication. However, what came as a difficulty was to make the propositions accepted.
The fact that the website needed amends was acknowledged and a professional website developer was in the agenda of the director because the ECCEA has international stakeholders as well and the external image is very important. However, I found hesitations concerning the Facebook and the YouTube account. The underlying problem was who will have the responsibility to update the page and whether the person will be able to do it in a professional manner. Also, I realised that working in the government sector required far more discussion for propositions to be approved. For instance, updates concerning the ECCEA would need to pass on the board meeting and only after the approval of the board members, the propositions would be put into place.
Even though the organisation lacked online presence, the director knew about the notoriety of Facebook and YouTube and how it would impact stakeholders. The only difficulty was to assigning the role to someone who will be able to handle external communication effectively. And this how PR recommendations for the whole organisation cropped up. My only wish is that with the Ministry of Education making the effort to make the education sector more advanced and more connected, it does not forget the pre-primary sector in the process.
Regards,
Divya Ruggoo
15636429
Heading to the last week of my internship, I was asked to propose some ideas to the ECCEA to make it more connected. I was surprised to see that the organisation's website was not up-to-date and that it had no other online presence except of the website.
The task was not difficult because it was all about 'Facebooking' and showing the importance of having a well presented website and a YouTube account. Taking into account the stakeholders of the organisation, I prepared a brief that would fit the personality of the ECCEA, the 'Whys' and the importance of polishing an image for external communication. However, what came as a difficulty was to make the propositions accepted.
The fact that the website needed amends was acknowledged and a professional website developer was in the agenda of the director because the ECCEA has international stakeholders as well and the external image is very important. However, I found hesitations concerning the Facebook and the YouTube account. The underlying problem was who will have the responsibility to update the page and whether the person will be able to do it in a professional manner. Also, I realised that working in the government sector required far more discussion for propositions to be approved. For instance, updates concerning the ECCEA would need to pass on the board meeting and only after the approval of the board members, the propositions would be put into place.
Even though the organisation lacked online presence, the director knew about the notoriety of Facebook and YouTube and how it would impact stakeholders. The only difficulty was to assigning the role to someone who will be able to handle external communication effectively. And this how PR recommendations for the whole organisation cropped up. My only wish is that with the Ministry of Education making the effort to make the education sector more advanced and more connected, it does not forget the pre-primary sector in the process.
Regards,
Divya Ruggoo
15636429
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
The workplace can never replace your university classroom!
Hello everyone!
This second post is about my first week at the headquarters of the ECCEA. The area is very much peaceful with a beautiful scenery and a huge garden. The day I was heading to work, I was actually very pleased with the charming surrounding. But I soon lost notion of what is around me when I was introduced to my second task which was the setting up of a newsletter. As easy as it is to say newsletter, as difficult it is to produce especially when you do not have any other PR staff. The newsletter was expected to be completed by A to Z and to really reflect the organisation.
I was given files which contained media releases and other documents related to past events to write articles. This also included writing articles concerning Rodrigues education sector and the events that were organised by the ECCEA (Rodrigues is a constituency of the Republic of Mauritius). Sometimes I could be writing three articles within three hours and sometimes due to the lack of guidance, I could be writing one single article for 3 hours. The process of looking for photos was even more tiring because the government filing system consists in contacting several people to have information and seek approval about the information that is going to be made public.
Also the theme of the template, the colors and the placement of the articles was very important. I had to do a newsletter three times so that it corresponded to what the Director was seeking. These were the times when I missed University, my friends and my PR lecturer because believe me, when the task that you have been assigned to takes half of your time and you dedicate all your hard work to make it up to the standard and at the last moment your supervisor does not appreciate the work, it is very disappointing. The approach at university level is very different to that of the workplace. The newsletter took me up to two weeks to complete but the motivation that it was actually going to be published kept me on the edge.
During these stressful days, what I found as an escape in this internship was to do media clippings. I volunteered to do the media clipping of the day and I was given a pile of newspapers to read and to find anything related to the Ministry of Education. The related articles would then be photocopied and filed accordingly.
Yes, media clippings can actually turn out to be something fun to do!
Regards,
Divya.
This second post is about my first week at the headquarters of the ECCEA. The area is very much peaceful with a beautiful scenery and a huge garden. The day I was heading to work, I was actually very pleased with the charming surrounding. But I soon lost notion of what is around me when I was introduced to my second task which was the setting up of a newsletter. As easy as it is to say newsletter, as difficult it is to produce especially when you do not have any other PR staff. The newsletter was expected to be completed by A to Z and to really reflect the organisation.
I was given files which contained media releases and other documents related to past events to write articles. This also included writing articles concerning Rodrigues education sector and the events that were organised by the ECCEA (Rodrigues is a constituency of the Republic of Mauritius). Sometimes I could be writing three articles within three hours and sometimes due to the lack of guidance, I could be writing one single article for 3 hours. The process of looking for photos was even more tiring because the government filing system consists in contacting several people to have information and seek approval about the information that is going to be made public.
Also the theme of the template, the colors and the placement of the articles was very important. I had to do a newsletter three times so that it corresponded to what the Director was seeking. These were the times when I missed University, my friends and my PR lecturer because believe me, when the task that you have been assigned to takes half of your time and you dedicate all your hard work to make it up to the standard and at the last moment your supervisor does not appreciate the work, it is very disappointing. The approach at university level is very different to that of the workplace. The newsletter took me up to two weeks to complete but the motivation that it was actually going to be published kept me on the edge.
During these stressful days, what I found as an escape in this internship was to do media clippings. I volunteered to do the media clipping of the day and I was given a pile of newspapers to read and to find anything related to the Ministry of Education. The related articles would then be photocopied and filed accordingly.
Yes, media clippings can actually turn out to be something fun to do!
Regards,
Divya.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
The unknown has never been so challenging!
My journey at the Early Childhood care and Education Authority (ECCEA) was not a planned one nor had I ever imagined that I would be seizing an internship at the Ministry of Education.
It was during during my interview with the director that it was made cleat to me that the ECCEA has no PR department but they are looking forward to see new development in their internal system.
I did not start my first day in the main office but I was invited to go to a forum which was going to regroup coordinators and assistant coordinators all over Mauritius. I was in charge of taking photos of the event that would be published in a forthcoming newsletter.
It was very difficult I have to admit because I did not know anyone from the field of pre-primary education. I was even mistaken to be one of the coordinators and when i clarified the misunderstanding stressing that I study PR and I am a trainee, most of the people did not know what it really meant. I then realised how restrained the PR field is among the government sector. And at the precise moment when I held my camera to take photos I realised that I lacked a lot of self-confidence and I was fearing that this might be a reason for me to produce an unsatisfactory work. As expected, when I showed the photos to my supervisor, she told me that I should not shield myself into timidity and be more bold to get things done. This internship taught me that in real-life, there won't be anyone on whom you can rely; it is only the fittest that survives.
Thankfully, some of the photos came out worthy of being published in the newsletter.
It was very difficult I have to admit because I did not know anyone from the field of pre-primary education. I was even mistaken to be one of the coordinators and when i clarified the misunderstanding stressing that I study PR and I am a trainee, most of the people did not know what it really meant. I then realised how restrained the PR field is among the government sector. And at the precise moment when I held my camera to take photos I realised that I lacked a lot of self-confidence and I was fearing that this might be a reason for me to produce an unsatisfactory work. As expected, when I showed the photos to my supervisor, she told me that I should not shield myself into timidity and be more bold to get things done. This internship taught me that in real-life, there won't be anyone on whom you can rely; it is only the fittest that survives.
Thankfully, some of the photos came out worthy of being published in the newsletter.
The forum was an excellent opportunity to meet the key people of the industry and to identify ECCEA's role within the ministry. One important thing I learnt as a PR person is to create contacts that is to liaise with key members because it later proved to be very useful to get access to information.
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