Citizens Advice Oxford

Final Year Undergraduate, BA PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Remote Working

Work Projects

I worked as a Research and Campaigning intern at Citizens Advice Oxford. My work was mainly focussed on compiling reports on various issues relevant to Citizens Advice clients, such as the operation of the Local Housing Allowance in the Oxford area and the impact of COVID-19 on Citizens Advice services. Citizens Advice Oxford provided me with ample support and training to be able to complete these tasks, and senior figures in the organisation were in frequent contact with me to ensure I remained on track.

Daily Life

My internship was a remote internship - there was a team meeting at 8.45am every day which I attended (this representing the start of my workday). I then worked for a few hours before lunch, then worked some more after lunch, took a brief mid-afternoon break and finished working at 5pm or so.

Lasting Impressions

I enjoyed the experience and feel that I gained lots of skills. In particular, I now know how to use pivot tables to analyse data in Microsoft Excel. This internship has confirmed my career ambition of working in the non-profit sector.

Ali Zinedin Al-Zubaidi, University College, SecondYear Undergraduate, BA PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Remote Working

Work Projects

As a research intern at Citizens Advice Oxford working in the research and campaigns team I was tasked (along with my fellow intern) to look into a research area related to Citizens Advice work before producing a report on said issue. We settled on a research project looking into the cost of living in the Oxford City Region. In doing so, we assessed housing costs, food costs, schooling costs and childcare costs before producing several recommendations on how said cost issues could be alleviated. As such, we were able to do a thorough deep dive look into the causes of poverty in Oxford and suggest poverty mitigation policies.

In addition to the research project, I completed several funder reports which entailed using Citizens Advice data to demonstrate to funders that their funds were being used appropriately and with positive consequences. This is an important endeavour for Citizens Advice Oxford (as a charity that is heavily dependent on outside funding) as it allows it to make the case to donors that money donated to Citizens Advice Oxford is money well spent.

Daily Life

My internship was done entirely remotely. Thankfully, Citizens Advice Oxford had a daily zoom call at 8:45 am for volunteers to brief each other on the day ahead and these daily encounters really made me feel that I was part of a team. Furthermore, given that this was a research internship, I really enjoyed the independence that I was given working from home. It very much felt like a research project driven by the interns and driven by our interests which meant that completing the final product (a report into the cost of living in Oxford) was much more satisfying.