The Corporate Volunteering - Report Example

Internship Report Name Institution Affiliation Internship Report Acknowledgements The time I spent in Australian Business Volunteers (ABV) as an intern from 20/4/15 to 30/4/15 was a memorable event. It helped me discover my potential and also enriched my experience sharing. I have gathered so much experience, and which I believe will influence and shape my professional life while nurturing the development and personal growth. In this report, I hope to reveal massive opportunities offered by Australian Business Volunteers (ABV) to pursue a career in the domain of NGOs. Without collaboration and contribution of others, this report would not be possible. I want to pass my heartfelt gratitude to: Almighty God, for giving me good health and long life, without his power I could not have finished this internship report. To the CEO, Sarah O’Connor for approving my application for internship. To the Director, Department of capacity building, for his unwavering technical support and relentless supervision which immensely contributed to my personal development. I also thank him for the providing me with guidance that was the driving force towards completing an internship programme. To the head of the department of advocacy of policy, for her advice on the ways I should improve in learning. To the research and Department of documentation for assistance to write my topic of research. The administrative manager who spared no effort in ensuring professional and social integration with Australian Business Volunteers (ABV) staff. To the rest of Australian Business Volunteers (ABV) staff for their guidance and support that helped me to overwhelm the challenges I faced during the past two weeks in Australian Business Volunteers (ABV). To you all I extend my gratitude. Executive Summary A corporate volunteering programme instituted by Australian Business Volunteers aims to develop skills of young Australians to contribute towards development of business volunteering sector (Olivia et al., 2012). The executive summary gives an overview of two weeks internship that was inclusive of activities, experiences and meetings. During my two weeks internship at Australian Business Volunteers, I worked with The Australian Executive Service Overseas Program. I also assisted in organising and coordination of subsidiary activities such as; research on the type of projects Australian Executive Services Overseas Program conduct. In addition to that, I also helped in constructing a table for power point display that improved Australian Business Volunteers Visibility and reputation (Justus, 2012) Reflecting on my experience at Australian Business Volunteers, the internship programme has made immeasurable effects in my capacity in varied fields, such as; Writing reports, coordinating teamwork, analytical writing, improved intercultural and organisational competence, program coordination and organising. The internship has broadened my base of knowledge, which was made a reality through my active participation in various tasks which I was allocated by the supervisor. It had been a wonderful experience in Australian Business Volunteers, and I propose that the organization organizes more of such programmes so as to widen its operational spheres. It will be of much assistance if the organisation continues to offer such incentives for young people in Australia. This improves their knowledge and enables them to appreciate the role of volunteering thus sharing the organization vision as suggested by Ainsmith et al., 2009. Table of Contents Contents Acknowledgements 2 Executive Summary 4 Contents 5 Introduction 6 Organizational Setting 7 Australian business Volunteers (ABV) is a business located in Commonwealth Bank in the Civil cross road on London circuit. It is located in a strategic position that is efficient for people who use the bus for transport. It is approximately 300 miles from my living place, and from the bus stop, I just used two minutes’ walk.This enabled me to arrive to the company on good time during my internship. 7 Project 8 Objective of the project 9 Project Description 9 Methodology used to perform project 11 Role of the Intern 11 Results of Project 12 Assessment of the Internship 12 Discussion and Conclusions 12 References 13 Introduction Corporate volunteering is an industrial training targeting Australian students who have done the business related course. Its training is conducted in a real business environment with a specific task to achieve predetermined goals. The programme is instituted by an organisation and every student is required to accomplish a period of two weeks. The internship is assessed on based on the following aspects: Researching on the company by looking at the perspectives as published by Quarterly newspaper. Submission of reports to the senate standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade. Find the required data on how the NGO can help by formulating case studies. The above process is formally practical in that, one is required to find data regarding NGO role in Papua New Guinea. Practical works and reports of this internship should be related to the course attained by the student and approved by the departmental head. During my time at Australian business volunteers, I was supposed to accomplish certain objectives. These include: Apply the research theory I had gained in the course I have done and apply it to research. To practise and expose competency in the real working environment, which is different from the studying environment. I was obliged to apply the skills gained throughout my academic years. To be a part of a professional staff for the importance of measurement of human resources. To gain more skills and knowledge so as to attract the organisation for hiring him/her after finishing the course. This volunteering program enhanced communication skills. In addition to that the volunteer will build up responsibility and create skills that are a worth experience. Organizational Setting Australian business Volunteers (ABV) is a business located in Commonwealth Bank in the Civil cross road on London circuit. It is located in a strategic position that is efficient for people who use the bus for transport. It is approximately 300 miles from my living place, and from the bus stop, I just used two minutes’ walk.This enabled me to arrive to the company on good time during my internship. The set-up of the company is structured in such a way that, the communication efficiency is optimised. The ABV has ten sections, and these sections are broken further into sub-division to enhance internal communication among team members. The office is designed in such a way that, a visitor can easily trace the chief executive office with ease. As you walk in the office, there is a visitors waiting area were a one can easily identify and press a bell button to get assistance. On the right of waiting area, there is chief executive office, and the next to this office, there is finance department, where you can get accountant Ping and managers’ office. On the left-hand side further down the hall, there are two meetings rooms and the office of the general manager of the company. Lucky enough, my desk was located in the middle of the office next to project manager, Alvin who heads corporate Volunteering project in China. The arrangement within the office was subdivided into different division to smoothen movement and communication. An organization with active staff achieves its objectives with the shortest time possible, as depicted by a staff led by CEO Sarah O`Conner up to Melinda, who is the general manager for international services. The Australian Executive Service Overseas Program works hand in hand with other organization such as the UN in making sure the organization achieve its volunteering objectives Sarah O’Connor leads the organization as the CEO while the project managers include Petra and Judy. The two have a duty of developing all aspects of the volunteering programme thus promoting the efficiency of the programs.The larger task lies on the hand of the project managers who undertake research, operations and experiments that are very necessary before approving a project. If they find any defect, they improve on the adversely affected aspect hence eliminating undesirable factors that mostly affect project feasibility. Project The main project was to learn the basics on how Australian business Volunteers organization worked. Learning was enhanced by collecting data on how the could help in achieving some economic development programs. Objective of the project At the end of the project, the internee was to acquire the skills of project management. Through scrutiny of previous projects done earlier by other volunteers, internee was to acquire the necessary skills needed for managing a project. In additional to that, as internee, I was eager to learn how to use websites in communication. My intention was to learn how to communicate efficiently using the current business information technology. At the end of the internship, it was expected that I could be able to use website tagged “Sales force” in which I could access information, such as, projects and contracts previously completed. Moreover, I intended to gain a spotlight on crucial administrative and financial policies, which could aid me to gain experience in the finance department and learn different types of the budget prepared when implementing a project. I intended to use internship opportunity to building up effective research skills. The research skills gained during the internship will be used in the development of a proposal and the project. Project Description The internship took place in a spun of approximately two weeks at Australian Business Volunteers premises located in Civic across the road from the Common Wealth Bank on London circuit.When I started my internship programme, I had the opportunity to manage my own website with the help of references of projects previously done by other volunteers. From them, I had this idea on what types of projects I could deal with. I also researched on; special media, such as Facebook, to look into published articles that would aid me to get knowledge on the type of projects carried out (Wardle, 2012). On the first day, it was a great achievement to construct a power point representation which greatly improved ABV visibility and enhanced its reputation. I did this task to the best of my ability and my efforts bore fruit, since the presentation was presented in the next general meeting where everyone attended. What I liked most was to meet people whom, I could learn from. Patrick was my supervisor who checked whether I did the tasks in the correct and efficient way. It is through him that I got the knowledge of accessing the company data base through his personal email that provided me with adequate materials for research. Through this, I was able to research for my perspectives in the quarterly journal. Internship is a very important program since every task assigned to internee gives an opportunity to experience how knowledge learnt in class is useful in yielding output. It is through this experience that one learns about important thoughts, develop an open-minded thinking and feel that he/she have achieved the set objectives (Passy et al., 2009). On other hand, Volunteering was taken in a different perspective by different individuals. Western culture took it as a way of giving back to the society while Papua New Guinea culture took it as a form of humiliation. The reason for their view is that volunteers work is carried out under harsh economic, social and political conditions for a long time. However, the most vital aspect is that as a volunteer, you are required to learn from every task. A good memory is needed to achieve through practising what was learnt in class. Reflecting on my experience on Australian Business Volunteers , I spent more hours reading old AESOP articles thus finding more data on how the NGO`S can be help alleviate social and economic challenges in countries like Tuvalu, Samoa, and Papua new Guinea. ABV business environment gave me the practical skill to prepare reports analyses of the company prior to holding staff meeting. Before my internship, I had never attended a meeting at an official level and I must admit attending the first one at ABV gave me an insight on how meetings are conducted. My scope of work designed to research about the previous works attended by other volunteers. In addition, I organised files on articles that were published in the website. The data I collected was to be used by the organisation to derive the idea of the content they were going to publish.It was also useful in the determination of areas in business that needed further research and development. I gained knowledge on how to work best with my colleagues and associate with the senior in the company. In one instance, one employee requested to print the schemes of work project that the CEO would present in the USA. Methodology used to perform project During my time at ABV internship most of the times I used web resources to do research and gather secondary data needed in the company. Primary data was collection was through the administration of the questionnaire and conducting interviews. This was done with a group of staff members in the organisation who had vast experience on the method of data collection. I applied the knowledge of Microsoft Excel and spss software learnt in class in analysing data I gathered from perspective journals published to make necessary recommendations. Utilising the scope of work data for other projects conducted in China, Vietnam and Indonesia helped me to have an understanding of what was expected to be done in my volunteering project. Role of the Intern My primary role as internee was to find data on how NGO can help in rejuvenating economic potential of some of the nations. In addition, as the internee, I was supposed to organise files that had earlier been published either in the web through Facebook, Twitter or any other printing media resource through a monthly newsletter and the perspective quarterly publications. Besides this, I was required to organise files to be used by the CEO for her presentation in the in general meetings. Results of Project The internship project was a success since the tasks allocated to me were completed, and this equipped me with the necessary skills. In addition to that , I was able to attend official meetings, and this equipped with ideas of making vital decision. Truly, experience and skills such as planning framework and strategic intent meeting can only be acquired by attending internship programs and corporate conferences. It is from the meetings that, I learnt the skills of writing reports and proposals to convince the donor to fund the viable project. Assessment of the Internship All the set objectives of attending the internship such as; gaining the skill of data collection, writing reports and proposals, analysing data, and making necessary recommendations were achieved. Assessment of my internship was done by my supervisor in the company, who signed my internship register on a daily basis. At the end of internship, my lecturer visited me in the company and made his final assessment that earned me positive score in the overall assessment. Throughout my internship, I supported policy advocacy units in conjunction with capacity building. Personal productive skills, such as, decision-making and analytical thinking were enhanced attending though corporate meetings and conferences. Discussion and Conclusions ABV internship programme has offered me great chance to develop and grow. It has propelled me to develop my career and also overcome challenges. I was able to learn extensively about corporate volunteering, its relevance to state building and promotion of the sustainable process of development in South East Asia countries. Working in ABV as an intern was not only a privilege and honour but it was lifelong capabilities that will forever shape my professional life.I deeply appreciate for being granted this opportunity in ABV as I look forward to join corporate world. Through ABV internship, I have learnt that formal education can provide you a living, but self-education can provide you a fortune. References Ainsmith, M., Brooks, S., Lichtenberg, A., McIlveen, P., Torjul, P., & Tyler, J. (2009). Career development Learning: Maximising the contribution of work-integrated learning to the student experience: Australian Learning & Teaching Council Final project report. University of Wollongong, Careers Central, Academic Services Division. Barron, P., & Rihova, I. 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