Reader Story: Work Experience at The Reader

We've had a few fresh faces in the office doing some work experience recently and as well as offering some fantastic reading recommendations, Rebecca has kindly penned some words on her Reader experience.

In the last 2 weeks at The Reader I have been able to see all aspects of the organisation.

I have been able to use my communication skills in various ways, e.g. talking to the elderly people in the over 50’s Shared Reading group and communicating with the children in The Storybarn. Using my communication skills will be vital for working as an occupational therapist.

My independence has also grown in the last 2 weeks, including traveling in every day by public transport and completing independent research. The independent research tasks I carried out were a write up of an article called ‘Are authors shying away from writing about social media’ and finding statistics on health issues in the UK e.g. 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year according to the mental health charity, Mind.

I have also been able to use my creativity skills in many different ways, for example when writing my blog post on the article and creating a fact sheet on dementia. Other skills I have been able to gain are, patience, presentation and organisational.

Working with the People Team during my time here at The Reader has allowed me to carry out certain administrative tasks such as using excel to create data tables, printing and photocopying resources. Improving my understanding of excel will be useful for any job role that go into in the future.

Throughout my two weeks here, I have been able to attend three Shared Reading groups. These have shown me that reading is an amazing tool for anyone to talk to one another and reduce isolation in the community. They have also allowed me to use my communication skills and listening skills when talking and discussing the short story or poem we were reading.

I would say that I most enjoyed working in The Storybarn, dressing up as an owl. I also really enjoyed the online dementia training that was ongoing throughout my two weeks here. I learned the science behind the cause of dementia and how you should respond to someone with dementia and what kind of behaviours people with the condition may show.

"After coming to The Reader, I have been able to secure the career pathway I’m going to take - I most definitely want to go into a caring profession, work with people and help others."