Heritage Alliance

Julia Pieza, TrinityCollege, BA History and Politics, Final Year Undergraduate, Remote Working

Work Projects

My internship at the Heritage Alliance was 6 weeks long and throughout this time I was able to contribute to a wide variety of projects. First, I was introduced to the Alliance’s work on their Heritage and Wellbeing report which I could contribute to by editing case studies. I was able to sit in and take notes during roundtable talks with sector specialists from heritage organisations which was a great introduction into the evidence-based work being conducted.

I really enjoyed learning more about the potential of heritage as a way to improve wellbeing and I felt my contributions were useful to the rest of the team. I would also feel supported to ask questions about my work, and more generally to ask about opportunities and projects to get involved in. Since the wellbeing report was being finalised, I sought the opportunity to conduct some preliminary research myself on the next report published by the Alliance. This report will be about diversity in the heritage sector, and I helped create an initial guidance document of resources and analysis from my independent research. This was a very valuable experience and something I found deeply engaging and important to contribute to. I presented my ideas to the policy and communications team and found that I could bring a different perspective as a young person starting out in this sector.

My team were encouraging and receptive to my ideas which made my work feel rewarding. Given the circumstances of the pandemic, my day-to-day work consisted of summarising government updates and guidance on re-opening, any updates on relevant bills and policies such as planning. This aspect of policy work helped me develop my communication and analysis skills further, I was able to take in new information and synthesise it with speed and accuracy. This was challenging yet highly useful for learning more about the link between government and advocacy organisations. Some examples of this type of work included summarising recent changes to VAT and how they will impact the heritage sector, or summarising planning policy papers and noticing upcoming changes to Environmental Impact Assessments that could impact the heritage sector.

During my internship, I wrote an issue of Heritage Update, a fortnightly newsletter that the Alliance publishes for around 14,000 people. This was a great way to get an overview of the

sector and learn more about projects that members of the Alliance have been organising for audiences during the lockdown. It involved some training in a design programme for the format of the newsletter as well as some WordPress training which will be a useful skill to take onwards.

Lastly, I ran the social media of the Alliance on Thursdays and Fridays, this introduced me to more organisations and individuals in the sector and I could notice how important digital skills were especially during the lockdown. I think as a young person it is easy to take those skills we almost naturally develop in the digital space and overlook how valuable our knowledge of communicating effectively online can be to organisations. I also had the opportunity to attend Heritage Digital webinars (run in partnership with the Heritage Alliance) about online engagement with audiences and an introduction to online data analysis which also helped me develop these key digital skills.

Daily Life

Working from home was certainly a unique experience but after finishing Trinity term at home I felt adapted to working in this setting. I was used to having a routine and had a good workspace. With time I also appreciated the flexibility and comfort that comes with working from home, for example the lack of an hour-long commute each way gave me more time to relax in the evenings. I found that the Alliance had adapted to online working really well, the team met regularly and worked together effectively across the organisations sharing information about upcoming projects. We also had informal coffee breaks during quieter days where I got to know people better.

Outside work, I relaxed by taking walks and running, once restrictions were being lifted, I could see friends in socially distanced circumstances. At the end of my internship, my team arranged leaving drinks for me, so I was able to meet them in person, again adhering to social distancing and other safety guidelines. This was a really nice way to end the internship and though there is definitely less of a social aspect to working online I did not feel I missed out on building valuable relationships with my team.

Lasting Impressions

Throughout my time at the Alliance, I felt supported by my team. On my first day, I was introduced to everyone at the Alliance via an online meeting, and I quickly learnt about the organisation as well as the typical structure of the working week. I was set clear and achievable tasks and given responsibility over projects and assignments that I was

interested in. The team held regular online meetings, and I had one-to-one support from my supervisor. I found it easy and effective to communicate with everyone via teams and email.

Overall, I've had an amazing time at the Heritage Alliance. I think the internship even in the online format far exceeded all of my expectations and the range of projects I've been able to get involved in has been great. I have developed valuable policy, research and communication skills and feel much more equipped to search for further opportunities within this sector. The experience has also definitely confirmed my interest and ambition to work in this sector and to engage with more policy work in the future.

What advice would you give to future interns?

My advice for future interns is to write down a general list of the projects that the organisation is working on. I worked on many smaller more urgent tasks alongside less urgent but more research-based tasks that involved independent work so knowing how to prioritise this work was helpful for staying organised.

Further advice for working from home is to try to reach out to team members for one-toone meetings as a way to learn more about their work and generally learn more about their career path. I found this was a great way to add to the more social side of the internship. I would also recommend writing about the tasks you're doing throughout the internship, with how much I worked on it was easy to forget certain tasks I had completed.