FASS Internship: Corporate Sustainability – Story Writing and Social Media

Posted on by Charlotte Britton

*This opportunity is exclusively available to current Lancaster University UG/PG students, studying within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences*

Background

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were agreed by 193 world leaders in September 2015, and aim to end extreme poverty, inequality, and climate change by 2030. These 17 ambitious goals can only be achieved with the support of governments, businesses, and individuals.

Although there have been many statements of support for the goals, specific measurable action has been less widespread. In the business community, 92% of businesses say they publicly support the goals while only 17% have programmes in place to achieve these (Deloitte, 2018).

TBL Services is a company which helps businesses understand and support the goals. In partnership with leading NGOs, Universities, and communications agencies, we have launched an initiative to catalogue the actions taken by businesses to support the goals.

The initiative – called ‘Support the Goals’ – is a not-for-profit venture, supported by the UN Global Compact and other leading NGOs and universities. It is a public website, which lists the commitments, stories, and progress of businesses supporting the goals at www.supportthegoals.org

Requirement

The initiative will require the ongoing publication of new stories of businesses and regular sharing of these on social media.

To manage this, we will require assistance to carry out the following duties :

  • Write around 3 stories per week of businesses supporting the goals – these will either be discovered through personal research or provided by TBL Services
  • Publish these examples as brief (300-500 word) stories, in a blog format
  • Build a following on Twitter by sharing daily stories and relevant news

The work should be carried out from home or university facilities. Assistance and detailed criteria for the work will be provided by TBL Services, who will oversee all output.

It is anticipated that the work will require about 4-5 hours a week.

Competencies

The ideal intern should have the following competencies:

  • Ability to work unsupervised
  • Good communications skills
  • Experience of using social media, particularly Twitter
  • Ideally, some understanding of corporate sustainability / social responsibility
  • Ideally, some understanding of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • Ideally, a personal passion for the concept of sustainable business
  • Ideally, experience of creating blogs using WordPress
  • The intern will need access to a computer and the Internet.

Important Dates:

  • Start date: tbc
  • End date: tbc
  • Application closing date: Sunday 23rd September at midnight
  • Interview date: TBC

Important Information:

  • Rate of pay £8.78 per hour (including holiday pay)
  • Internship is for 140 hours in total
  • Working pattern: 4-5 hours per week
  • This role offers the flexibility to work remotely, although initial meetings will need to take place to discuss expectations, workload etc.

To apply, please send your tailored CV and cover letter to fassplacements@lancaster.ac.uk

Please direct all enquiries to fassplacements@lancaster.ac.uk