My personal experience with MITA’s SPP
As the end of my third consecutive summer participating in the MITA Student Placement Programme, or SPP as it is better known among students, is fast approaching, a new experience awaits when I begin the next year of my university studies.
These 3 years have been incredibly important for my development and the following is a brief explanation of what you can expect if you do indeed apply to be a part of this fantastic program.
As I mentioned previously, this was my third consecutive year participating in this Programme. During the first two years I was assigned to Skolasajf. In my first year of participation, I was assigned various tasks, some quite straightforward, while others were a bit more intense mainly due to deadlines that I had to follow.
Following my successful application, in the first summer of participation in the Programme, I was looking forward to a different experience, since it would be the first time that I would be working in an office environment after having previously worked at a fast-food restaurant. I worked with Skolasajf as an SPP student and mainly, I was allocated tasks such as contacting the heads of summer schools to see if everything was going to plan. I also gathered certain information such as how many students would be attending various upcoming events, which had been planned as part of the Skolasajf Programme, while also ensuring that each event had been planned correctly according to specific requirements previously in place.
Apart from liaising with main stakeholders involved in these events, I also had to maintain certain files such as timetables and attendance for Programme employees in order to ensure the smooth operation of the Programme within the school I was assigned to.
Last summer, although still working with Skolasajf, my tasks were very different from my previous experience the summer before. These were mainly contacting parents of students whose children were attending Skolasajf to verify payments as well as going through hundreds of employee contracts to ensure they contained the correct information. These tasks were more difficult than the previous year’s, mainly because when dealing with the contracts I was working on a very tight deadline. The second task, that of contacting parents, was especially difficult as initially I lacked the confidence and knowhow required for this delicate task, however with the help of more experienced colleagues, I quickly learnt to adapt to difficult circumstances when dealing with difficult situations.
This experience helped me to develop more confidence, taught me a lot of patience, while greatly improving my communication skills. One must also take into consideration that all this was taking place during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Not an easy situation to deal with when also learning to adapt to a real working environment. Overall, this part of my experience also helped to improve my skills when working within a team alongside other fellow students who were also participating in the SPP.
This summer, I was assigned to work at MITA through the SPP program. Definitely a very different experience to my previous placements through SPP with Skolasajf. Having been assigned to the Strategy Team within the Strategy and Business Department at MITA’s Head Office, I found myself in an office environment, which allowed me to gain experience within an office. My main task for this summer was based on independent research for the eventual development and set up of a Knowledge Database which would be designed to store reports and related files, provide cross referencing of the reports and documentation it will eventually contain, and improve work efficiency within the Strategy Team.
This was something huge for me and definitely out of my comfort zone, but I had help from my colleagues, who helped me to find my bearings, were patient and would also give me pointers when I got stuck. At the end of this experience, I feel a sense of accomplishment, having completed the document outlining my ideas for this database as I previously mentioned. This was the first time someone really put faith and trusted me to work in a “supervised” independent fashion. I have gained further experience which will serve me well in my future studies and eventual career path, so I can’t thank them enough.
As a student, I wholeheartedly recommend any fellow student who meets the selection criteria of this Programme, and who is willing to learn new skills or further develop the skills they currently have, to participate in next summer’s Programme. Throughout these last 3 years, I have consistently built on my skills and have learnt so much. Through my experience at MITA this summer, I can state without a doubt that the people who work there are extremely friendly and helpful. They believe in this Programme and are committed to helping students have a positive learning experience, which enables the preparation for seeking full-time employment in the future to be a less daunting experience. It is my opinion that having these experiences on my resume will go a long way in assisting me in my career path in the not-toodistant future.