IntoUniversity

Jake Farrell, a graduate-trainee Education Worker who joined us in August and will be based at IU Haringey North, writes about his first month at IntoUniversity:

Maybe it's fitting that starting work with IntoUniversity has been an experience akin to starting university itself. The debauchery of Freshers' week has thankfully been absent but there have been other comfortingly nostalgic similarities; the nervous arrival, the awkward relationships that have turned quickly into firm friendships and a huge amount of new information to take on board.

Like a lot of universities, just to extend this already tenuous analogy a little further, IU is an organisation committed to the welfare of new members and we have all been made to feel incredibly welcome. Over the course of our first month in training we've made it around to almost every learning centre in the capital in a tour that has given us a real sense of the charity as a whole, spanned all four points of the compass and led to more than a few of us getting properly lost. From interns to cluster managers, each interaction with an IU staff member has helped quickly erode the distinction between “newbies” and veterans, meaning that even after a short period of time we all feel embedded in the culture and ethos of the charity.

The learning that we've been doing, ranging from child protection to branding, has been really engaging and I think it's served to heighten even further the excitement we all have to get into our centres and get going with our new colleagues and the young people. Beyond that it's been the way that we have been treated that makes me excited to be a part of it all. We've been valued, we're clearly believed in and the training is giving us all the skills that we need to succeed - not to mention a huge daily intake of tea, biscuits and on rare, beautiful occasions even bowls of grapes (take a bow, IU Lambeth).

It's been a brilliant first month. Here's to plenty more.

If you would be interested in working with IntoUniversity, please visit our website.