All those years leading up to graduation, I can’t say I thought I’d be stuck at home and unable to satisfy the travel bug in me. However, I’m grateful for how fortunate I am to be healthy and able to create new opportunities for myself despite the circumstances.
I’m a Communications and PR graduate from University of Ulster and a bartender, and I could have easily spent weeks on end doing nothing during lockdown, but I’m not the type to sit still for very long. After all of this is over, I want to be able to say, “this is what I did to further my skills and qualities while out of work”.
When a friend told me about a CMI Management and Leadership course at the South Eastern Regional College (SERC) that included a placement, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for: experience in a professional environment related to my degree and another qualification to add to my CV. The cherry on top, was that my placement at Watson & Co Marketing, with Christine Watson, offers hundreds of free courses through the variety of resources via Make It Click and Christine’s other founded company Training Matchmaker.
Six weeks is a short time to complete a placement, but I’m keen and confident that I can maximise my learning during this time and put plenty of skills into practice.
My name is Maya McCloskey, I am a Communication Management and Public Relations graduate. I am looking to expand my skills and gain further experience in a professional environment, moving towards a future career in my degree field. I’m excited to boost my creativity, improve on the skills I already have and learn skills that I’m completely new to. I love to cook and travel (when there’s no pandemic) and hope that in 2021 I can be on the right track to my career.
My learning aims
Online Communication
With working and studying from home being something new to many of us, I’ve been introduced to so many new platforms of learning and teaching. Improving my knowledge and skills of using tools such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, including how to screenshare documents here and invite others to edit, as well as creating and inviting others’ to meetings, or sharing a calendar. This will no doubt be a skill that will remain useful, not only for group work on my course but any future projects with oversea clients or organisations.
Content Creation
Through my degree, I’ve created several different campaigns, but I’ve never had the chance to put them into real practice. Through the course I’d love to create and implement a content calendar, whilst using tools such as Canva and Unsplash to improve my marketing skills in relation to social media posts through Hootsuite and advertising tools. Part of this creation also includes blogs, I have a good bit of experience with WordPress, but there’s always room for improvement. Whilst working online and sharing projects with others, Trello will allow me to learn the most productive and efficient ways to manage and share those projects.Online Safety and Security
I have to admit, the online world makes me nervous when I think about how easy it is for people to scam and hack into accounts. It’s so important to be able to spot things that may be a risk to my personal or professional accounts. This also includes documents, as it’s imperative to not breach any confidentiality rights of an organisation or client.Business Tools
I don’t have my own business but that doesn’t mean to say that I never will! I think it’s important to be able to understand how to create and run a Facebook business page and website. This is especially useful now as I can put it into practice with helping my mum with her newly started online business. While I have some understanding of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), it was maybe one lecture 3 years ago, and I’m much more of a practical learner. I can learn by teaching, it’s a win-win!My Career’s Future
I’m very new to the LinkedIn game, I guess it seemed a little daunting at first. Now that I’ve finally made one, I don’t want it to just sit there, I want to utilise it the best I can. I may as well show off all my skills and experience if I want to stand out to future employers, confidence is key! Not only that but understanding what career suits me best and being as prepared and charming as possible for any interviews that come my wayAbout Me
About Make It Click
Make It Click is a great free resource site for anyone to improve their digital skills through varying means such as videos, blogs, guides and online courses. Make It Click is part of Learn My Way which is funded by Google through their Good Things Foundation project, encouraging people to get the most benefit from using the digital world in both their personal and professional lives. You too can sign up for free – use Centre number: 8003411 – trainingmatchmaker.com when registering. If you’d like to follow in my footsteps, here are some of the skills I’m aiming to learn through my Make It Click playlist:- Research and auditing
- Content creation
- Social media competency
- Work communications
- Events
- Customer Relationship Management
About Training Matchmaker
Training Matchmaker’s aim is to allow people to learn and teach by signposting thousands of online courses, all of which are free. Anyone can find and add courses, find trainers or look out for training opportunities for themselves, whilst meeting others with the same goals in mind.About SERC
SERC provides hundreds of full-time and part-time courses of varying qualification levels, to allow teenagers and adults to develop their skills, utilise them in a practical means, and provide the best possible benefits for future careers. I am currently enrolled in the Level 5 Certificate in Management and Leadership which provides an awarded qualification through the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). The course offers 8 weeks of part-time online classes alongside 6 weeks of full time placement through local businesses. It is targeted at Degree graduates who have been furloughed, are unemployed or face possible employment risk. Funded by the Department for the Economy, the course provides a weekly training allowance of £150 for enrolled students. Edits:- 17/02/2021 – About Me – social media profiles
- 17/02/2021 – About Make It Click – centre number for TrainingMatchmaker.com
- 17/02/2021 – About SERC – further course information
