Guest Blog: What have the last three months meant to you?

Richard Watson and Rachel Reid

At IntoUniversity we recently expanded our Graduate Scheme, and took on 13 new members of staff to deliver our widening participation programme to young people across our network of centres. Richard and Rachel, part of that cohort, speak about the group's experiences.

It’s been over three months since IntoUniversity’s newest intake of Graduate Trainees arrived for their first day at North Kensington, but the time has certainly flown by. Our introduction to the organisation began with some intensive training but before we knew it we were delivering activities and programmes ourselves.


Sultana has commented on just how welcoming our introduction to IntoUniversity was, whilst Emily W felt that the opinions and input of all participants was acknowledged and valued.

Hannah P felt that the training we received from existing staff was extremely organised and professional, whilst I (Richard) particularly appreciated the way the training not only provided us with valuable content but also demonstrated different approaches to delivery which we “subtly absorbed”.

Our training flowed naturally into observations, time-teaching and finally delivery and Rachel felt that the well-devised training programme made it easy to apply the things we’d learned to real teaching environments.

Once he was given a particular strand of the programme to manage, Mike felt a real sense of ownership for our work. He also enjoyed being placed in a particular centre and being given a platform to help shape that centre’s own unique identity.


But even though everyone is very proud of their new centres it hasn’t stop the group adopting its motto of “One Team, One Dream!”.

Many new Graduate Trainees have also commented on the positive impact that IntoUniversity’s approach and values have had on their lives outside of work. Emily H believes that she has been able to extend the values she has adopted at IntoUniversity into her personal life. This has impacted upon the way she deals with friends and family in a really positive manner.

The past few months have been a wonderful experience but none of the new recruits are in any doubt that the remainder of the year will be even better!