Work Experience at WhiteHead Ross
During the summer of 2021, I took a week out of sixth form to gain work experience at a company called WhiteHead Ross, a company built on the aim to help young people go into the world of work. They did this by helping them gain qualifications in English and maths and by sending them on a work placement that would give them valuable experience in an industry of their choice.
My Experience
During my time partaking in this work placement, I gained experience working in a media team to make flyers, social media posts and advertisements for the company. I was given access to their professional Canva account and used Photoshop in order to make sure the designs looked as professional as possible. I learned about the importance of logos in media, as I was instructed to make sure that the business logos along with the European Union and Government education funding agencies were included. This allowed me to learn about the laws of the industry and the qualifications that businesses must advertise, giving me crucial information about designing for a business.
When designing social media posters and flyers advertising a summer activity week I learned more about the importance of bright colours and related images for a product. I had to make sure the product looked engaging and fun but also had enough information for people to read and understand. I did begin to struggle in this section as I had to find a balance in my designs for professionalism and graphics, something that I was eventually able to do by laying out typography all around the product, allowing me to design freely with enough information on the posts.
One of the main things I created during my work experience was flyers advertising the business to potential learners and businesses. While designing them I had to learn to use different words and phrases between them due to the different audiences being targeted. When advertising at businesses I wanted to showcase the good their cooperation with WhiteHead Ross would be as they would be giving a work placement to a young person in need of experience and who needs help to start their career. I used the colours blue and white to create a formal appearance, with bold fonts being used to immediately showcase what was being advertised. I made sure to include the positive comments from learners who had completed a course with Whitehead Ross to emphasize the positives of giving young people the chance to undergo a work placement. I ensured to showcase the positives a partnership could give the company as well, emphasising the extra support they would gain in the workplace and how they wouldn’t have to cover the costs of any learner they decided to employ. I finished the designs with the contacts they needed if they wanted to employ a learner. My designs later were used by the company to promote their business.
When creating the flyers targeting learners, I still used formal language to showcase how the company was serious about their needs. I made sure to outline all the help and experience they would gain by choosing to sign up to WhiteHead Ross including their finances being covered, help writing their CVs and the help they would receive going into employment. By doing this I was able to make it clear what the company did and all the benefits that people would receive by signing up. I also made sure, as I did on all products made during this work experience, that the correct logos were showcased on the flyers to show the certification that the company was following government and European laws. I included the slogan "Pathway to Payday" to make the flyer more memorable to those reading it and used the colour green to try and associate the flyer with positivity as it is often associated with growth and harmony. Again, the flyer was finished by adding the company contact details to allow any possible learners to easily sign up for the programme.
To finish off my work experience I made a series of social media posts created to showcase the companies’ successes across various areas. I made sure to use bold fonts to help the achievements stand out and used a variety of bright colours to make the posts stand out online. I made sure each post had an image and a small piece of text explaining the achievement. This allowed Whtehead Ross to help their staff feel successful as well as their learners and was a great way for them to show appreciation to others.
At the End
Overall I found this work experience to be a great way to develop my knowledge into the development and production of media products. It gave me my first experience of working in a professional media team and gave me valuable skills that I will continue to carry and develop throughout my work in the media industry. By the end of this experience I found that I knew more laws about what must be included in a media product along with the importance of both typography and graphics when designing a piece of media.