This blog post was written by Annie, one of our Micro Interns from Oxford University. Annie joined us for a week to get a deeper understanding of closing the disability employment gap, operating as a social enterprise and the potential areas of growth for Avalis:
My time as an intern working for Avalis in December 2020 was an enormously insightful and rewarding experience and one where I have not only gained skills that will help me in my future career, but I have also gained knowledge and a greater understanding of a huge area of inequality in our society.
This internship has given me the opportunity to think deeply about disability employment, as well as about the difficulties disabled people face in society more generally. This includes the problems finding suitable housing for example, and the fact that this can inhibit one from moving to a location essential to starting a dream job and achieving career goals; the difficulty in finding a job that has the accessibility and inclusive workplace needs that employers should already be providing; and the fact that a disabled person, per month, spends far more than a non-disabled person for the ‘same standard of living,’ (from Scope) this I find to be truly shocking and unfair. Ultimately, this means that it is far harder for disabled people to embark on a professional career, and work to the top of their chosen industry or area because too often education and acceptable working environments have not been put in place. This internship enabled me to think deeply about these issues. This, combined with listening to the eye-opening personal stories and experiences from Becky Andrews, one of the Directors at Avalis, moved me, and drove me to want to contribute proactively as much as I can to assist Avalis on this journey of improving inclusivity for disabled people in the workplace and ultimately in society for the better. My role during this internship was primarily to research potential commercial partnerships for Avalis. This was interesting as this allowed me to look into other charities and social enterprises and gain a deeper understanding of what different organisations are doing to tackle inequality in society already, as well as in the workplace. As well as this, I looked into and researched different bloggers, inclusion leaders and podcasts, exploring other ways that Avalis could build a greater following and thus reach a wider pool of people with the work they are doing, through social media. Again, it was interesting to explore the work that others are doing and read more personal stories and experiences further explaining the challenges that different people have faced. This further gave me a bigger understanding of the scale of the problems disabled people face in society, as well as in terms of employment, in a way that statistics, despite being extremely insightful, cannot convey. The work that Avalis are doing, providing services to both employers and people searching for professional careers, will make such a huge difference for the better. This is why forming commercial partnerships is so important, because, in order for Avalis provide the excellent services on offer, this organisation must be able to connect with those who will benefit from these services, including employers, charities and social enterprises. I look forward to following Avalis’s success in the future, after this internship, and am excited for future partnerships to be made. On a more personal level, the skills and knowledge that I have developed and gained from this internship have, and will continue, to benefit my future life and career. I found the whole experience, despite everyone working from home, due to the situation as a result of the global pandemic, to be very engaging and enjoyable. We regularly took part in group discussions and meetings about the work we were doing and our findings. It was especially worrying to discover that for many companies, even those that have worked hard to improve inclusivity in their working environments, that there is still so much work to be done to make their workplaces accessible to the whole community. This further demonstrates the importance of the work that Avalis are doing, providing a service so that employers can create a working environment for everyone to thrive, as well as providing a service for people looking for a professional career. In terms of the specific skills that I have developed, my ability to research and problem solve has definitely improved, especially with limited time and limited knowledge of the topic that I was researching. This is a transferrable skill that I can carry with me and use for any future roles. I certainly encountered some difficulties throughout my internship, especially throughout the research tasks; it was tricky sometimes to find the exact data that I was looking for; finding contacts proved challenging, and it was difficult to complete all the research and work that I intended to do with the time constraints that I had. However, overcoming these problems, and sometimes accepting the difficulties in finding certain data, again is something that I will encounter throughout the rest of future career and it is important that I have experience dealing effectively with problems when they arise.
Also, it was incredibly interesting to be part of a project at the early stages of its development. I was not only playing a part in the growth of a start-up but also gaining greater awareness of the kind of elements that are involved in bringing an idea into fruition. This also gave me the opportunity to question my ideas and subsequently engage in further research to ensure that the data and information I was collecting was as precise and useful as possible. I gained extra knowledge also from the regular discussions via Zoom meetings, as mentioned above. During these, we listened to the tasks of the other interns, and advice from prior work achieved from the directors. This exposed me to different areas of work for Avalis’s further development, other than my own, and this allowed me to feel even more involved through sharing ideas between each other and learning from each other, to create in-depth reports at the end. It was so important for me personally to listen and have an idea of what everyone else’s ideas and thoughts were for their work area. I truly think that all of us, who have little knowledge about disability employment, would benefit from researching this, as well as inequality in the workplace and society more generally, in greater depth. This would be so important in the context of employment as everyone would have an equal opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential; no one would want to stop someone from fulfilling their goals and achieving a successful career, and unfortunately, this is something that is currently happening to disabled people who would like to work. It is important also for businesses and employers to understand that inclusion in the workplace has unprecedented benefits, not only for the individual that is able to pursue a successful professional career but also for businesses themselves. Evidence from a study shows that companies that increased inclusivity did better than others: ‘Revenues were 28% higher, net income 200% higher, and profit margins 30% higher’ (from NY Times article). This highlights that greater inclusivity in the workplace is such a significant and beneficial change that can be made, and this is why the work that Avalis are doing, in supporting employers, and people who are looking for work, is so important.
In conclusion, I have really really enjoyed my time working with Avalis as part of this internship. The knowledge and understanding that I have gained from this opportunity is invaluable and I will carry with me from the rest of my life. Although I am undecided as to what career I would like to enter in the future, I am interested to explore the area of work that I was undertaking in this internship further.
I am excited for the future and to see Avalis grow and develop and I feel very lucky to have been able to play a small part in Avalis’s progress.
Annie
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