Graduate intern, Laura, blogs about her recently completed graduate internship working with the Psychology technicians at Staffordshire University.
I graduated in the summer of 2016 from Staffordshire University with a BSc (Hons) Forensic Psychology and have been travelling and enjoying the summer free of exams, still unsure of the direction my career was going. Just before Christmas last year I saw the Psychology Technical Skills Assistant internship with Staffs Uni, and decided how this could be the opportunity I was waiting for to begin my career and taste what it is like to be an ‘adult’. Which I am sure all graduates will agree is the hardest aspect of completing university. I instantly felt at home when I returned to the university and was welcomed by all the academics and technicians, and have enjoyed every day since I started.
I have had the pleasure of working with some of my own project students with their final year projects and watched them succeed, this had by far been the most rewarding part of the last 3 months, especially after being in their position last year. This has truly opened my eyes to the different aspects of psychological research and has (finally) helped me decide my career path. I am hoping to continue as a Psychology Technician and further advance my skills or go into research and eventually complete a PhD.
I have been fortunate enough to share this experience with Sarah Higgins and Paul Gallimore, both whom are award winning Psychology Technicians and have been amazing with my training. They have embraced my enthusiasm to learn and made the internship as enjoyable and valuable as possible, also helping me overcome a number of challenges along the way. Both have been incredibly supportive of helping me to develop skills for a career and hopefully to have a more permanent career which use my knowledge from this internship.
From project building for students to using specialist equipment such as EEG or eye tracking, all of which I wish I had used in my own final year project! Both psychology technicians are happy to go one step further for each of their students and will to make your project build easier (if there is such thing as making 3rd year ’easier’ anyway). All of the psychology equipment is there for students to use, so please use it to your advantage and have some fun and learn new skills in your final year as an undergraduate.
The Department of Psychology at Staffordshire University offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Psychology at the University’s £30 million Science Centre in Stoke-on-Trent.
Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details, and to book your place at an open day, please visit: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/openyourmind/
For more information about the undergraduate Psychology degrees on offer at Staffordshire University please visit the course profiles below: