Time to use those graduate skills (and get paid!) – Helena Ripley, NEF intern

In summer 2015 I spent three months at the National Energy Foundation as part of the internship programme available through the Science and Technology Department. My internship was full time and paid (part by Santander University SME funding and part by the National Energy Foundation), this was particularly useful as I was based in Milton Keynes.

My job title was Energy in Homes Project Officer mostly working for YouGen. This is a site which helps homeowners to find reliable information about renewable energy generation and energy saving. There is also a nation-wide directory of regional energy related installers with customer recommendations. My main role was to write blogs for YouGen on various topics including: ventilation, wood burning stoves, solar panels and changes to subsidies. The majority of my time was spent doing online research to get the most up to date information and to learn more about energy in homes as this isn’t an area I had worked in directly before. I also spent time talking to people in the office who are experts on the subjects I was researching; they were very helpful and willing to take the time to talk through things with me.

The other work that I did on the YouGen site was creating monthly newsletters which went out to about 10, 000 people. There are two monthly newletters, one for businesses and the other for homeowners; they had slightly different formats and content. I also worked with two other interns to produce a static page about electrical storage (batteries), this was much longer than the blogs and far more complex so it took quite a bit of time. The YouGen team are trying to get more installers on the directory so I was involved in the planning of a marketing project and helping to gather information about relevant companies.

There are many different projects that are based in the National Energy Foundation so I also had the chance to work with the SuperHomes team in the run up to their September open days. This mostly involved proofreading but I also helped to update the database and put together some leaflets.

I enjoyed working at the National Energy Foundation, the staff were supportive and friendly. There were several social events such as an office picnic, meals and drinks out. The other interns were very sociable. This was my first internship that was linked to my Environmental Science degree and it really helped to me to begin to understand the energy and housing sectors. I gained some helpful skills and experience, and some good points to put on my CV.