Student Work Experience

12 month placement at Airbus SAS as Communications Assistant - Alexandra Gencheva

My 12 month internship at Airbus was more beneficial and worthwhile than I could've imagined. It helped me gain a perspective on how things actually work in the world of business, and how theoretical knowledge can be applied in practice. I was part of the Communications department at Airbus in the UK, based at its Broughton site (the larger part of the team was based in Filton, Bristol). In my role as a Communications Assistant my responsibilities were divided between Internal Communication and Community Relations. Each field allowed me to experience different aspects of Communications and to understand how internal and external communications are linked within a business context.

Quite a valuable aspect of my work experience was the fact that I was treated as a vital part of the team, rather than just an intern. I was given tasks and responsibilities of importance, essential to major projects that the department supports.  For instance, I was assigned the role of creating and updating a monitoring system for an internal Employee Engagement Survey. During its duration I kept track of the participation rate of employees who filled out the paper-based survey, and produced data which was measured against the expected rate for that week. The data showed current progress for the different departments, as well as the company overall (across all the countries).

I’ve also been solely responsible for encouraging media coverage and organizing Airbus ‘brand’ presence at the Airbus-sponsored Flintshire Festival of Youth Sport. This involved liaising with Flintshire County Council, local media, participating schools, and working with Airbus partners who supply branded goods, and services such as putting banners up. I’ve been given the lead role for creating posters for an internal poster campaign on health and safety (Chrome awareness) and another on Quality and Innovation. In that role I had to work with the respective departments whose campaign it was, as well as work with the Graphics department on the actual poster ideas.
On a day to day-to-day rolling basis I was responsible for monitoring press for any coverage on Airbus. I also had to seek out any internal community-, charity-, and Schools Liaison-related stories that I was to then draft into a press release, which after approval, I was to issue to local media. This was part of a great deal of work that Airbus is involved in - making sure it gives back to its local community and aiming to maintain an image as corporately responsible company.

Apart from day-to-day work, and major one-off projects I was also always involved in supporting activities around big events such as VIP visits (local MPs), internal roadshows (John Leahy – Chief Commercial Officer), and externally held events (Airbus Financier Forum). These usually involved an all-hands-on-deck involvement from the Broughton team, as we were smaller (but more integrated), than the Filton team.

Overall, I feel like I’ve grown as an individual during my internship at Airbus. Not only did I get valuable hand-on experience relative to the degree I’m studying, but I’ve gained a lot of employability skills. I have been able to reflect on this through the Work Experience Award, which takes you through various tasks during your internship, and helps you create a self-development plan. I do think that some skills and knowledge I gained were through working with other people and departments in the company, by being immersed in the overall culture of Airbus.