SKILL DEVELOPMENT DURING WORK EXPERIENCE WEEK | Work Experience
Having had the opportunity to gain work experience to develop professional skills for my internship was extremely valuable for me to gain a better understanding of what working in a field of my passion is like. For a while now I have wondered what working in a professional setting is like, what kind of skills are required in the future and also gain a more meaningful insight into working, having had the opportunity to take part in an internship was wonderful.
For my internship I worked at the GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) German development agency which focuses on international development. Along with two other classmates I worked in the field of sustainable agriculture, given the task of producing a video that would educate the general public on the importance of sustainably produced and certified rice in Thailand. In order to do so, we had to research, storyboard and script our video, and plan what footage to collect accordingly. Throughout our work week, we went to interview farmers on their rice fields, the UN building as well as an expert on rice inspection and certification from the Thai Rice Department to lead our investigation. Not only did this provide very valuable information to create the educational video, it also developed skills such as communication, collaboration and research. As students it was our task to use our experiences to produce and direct a video that would shed some light on sustainable rice in an engaging and educating manner.
Due to my interest in the field of international cooperation and sustainability, having had the opportunity to practically work on a project that provided insight into what working in the field is like was very valuable. My aim to get out of this experience was mainly focused on simply gaining understanding of what this field of work covers, however, I realized looking back that there is so much more which I gained out of the experience. I developed professional skills, discovered in what ways we can tackle current issues with a profession and investigated a very relevant field of study which correlates with what I am passionate about.
The final product can be viewed on the official website of the SRP project.
‘Sustainable Rice in Thailand - A Student’s Perspective’
“We are three students from NIST International School and for our Work Experience week at the GIZ were given the incredible opportunity to investigate, plan and produce a short documentary on the benefits of sustainable rice in Thailand. After the initial phase of planning and scripting the video, we spend some time traveling to the Angthong province in central Thailand to interview rice farmers on their perspective working in the industry. We also received expertise insight from members of the Thai Rice department and SRP (Sustainable Rice Platform) Secretariat to further develop our video. Producing our own educational video to raise awareness on sustainability in the agricultural industry for the general public was a very interesting and rewarding process. We learned to communicate with people who did not speak the same language as us and use their expertise to clarify the content we created. Our end product, a short documentary, features the knowledge we gained out of the experience to be of use to consumers of rice. It was a truly unforgettable experience which has given us valuable insight into what working in the field of international development is like and has definitely sparked our interest in the field of sustainability.”
Our work week was structured in a way that resembled a typical day of work; unlike school which varies in timing depending on the day and consists of little breaks and such, we had a set time which we had to start and finish by. This provided insight into what working is really like; what responsibilities you carry to be punctual and productive throughout the day. I learned that working in the field of international aid can take many different forms.
Although I do feel more passionate about sustainability in areas of environmental protection, I realized that even when working in the field of agriculture you can tackle such issues as those which I am passionate about. Initially I had a very set mindset on what I want to pursue in the future, but after my work experience I learned that there are so many different directions one may go into even just in one particular field.
This experience is one which I am very grateful for, not only because of what I learned which will be of very high relevance in the future but also for the people I was able to meet and the experience of working in a field of my passion. I have realized that this is definitely an option I may wish to proceed in the future and feel more informed on after this internship week.
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Hannah
