Line Manager Name:Ā Sarah White
Job Title:Ā CEO of Supershoes
Pathways Programme:Ā Pathways to Charity and Development
Organisation Summary: Supershoes empower children and young people fighting cancer in the UK, enhancing physical & emotional well-being while raising awareness along the way. Supershoes are a registered charity that provides unique customised gifts for incredibly brave children and young people (0-24), who are receiving treatment or palliative care for cancer in the UK. The gifts provided are hand painted customised canvas shoes – Hence the name Supershoes!
How was your experience of hosting a Pathways intern?
We loved hosting two pathway interns!
They both worked remotely and whilst we all agreed it would have been lovely to work in an office together, this was the next best thing and the measures we put in place facilitated this. Firstly we discussed boundaries and the need to take defined breaks and add structure to the day, which helped the interns to appreciate this wasnāt an expectation of a 24/7 job! We put in place working hours and structured contact times and meetings to the working week. We created folders on our cloud so we could all work collaboratively and I could see how the project was developing and give steer when needed. It was great to see the thought process and direction and the pre scheduled contacts worked well to bounce ideas.
Given the Professional Pathways internship is 35 hours in total, how would you recommend ensuring both you and your intern(s) gain as much as possible from the experience?
Itās worth spending time to carefully consider the overall objectives for both the organisation and the interns and how you can best support the interns to reach their full potential. One of our wider objective was to inspire the interns to either consider working in the third sector, commit to volunteering or to inspire others to do so. We hope we did just that!
What advice would you give to a student considering applying for Professional Pathways?
Do it! It is an invaluable experience to put your knowledge and thinking into a real life project, which will not only benefit you but benefit the charity you work with. Itās also a great way of gaining experience a sector and developing an understanding of the the challenges that sector faces without committing to working in the sector for the long term.