Apply for the Community & Communications Officer role.

Here’s Emily story of working with Fair Trade Wales:

“My internship at Fair Trade Wales was an extremely valuable experience, and one that has been instrumental in shaping my future career aspirations. I had recently concluded my masters degree at Cardiff University, where I studied Sustainable Supply Chain Management, and was hoping to gain some experience in the sustainability sector.

Having recently graduated from University, I had little practical work experience and felt that I needed to gain some professional skills to support my academic achievements.

Throughout my studies, I had focused the majority of my work around social and environmental sustainability and had written about Fair Trade for my undergraduate dissertation. Having lived in Wales my entire life, I was proud that it had become the World’s first Fair Trade Nation, so I felt that working with Fair Trade Wales would be both an exciting and rewarding experience.

I worked as International Conference Events Assistant. The primary objective of my role was to support the implementation and planning of the International Fair Trade Towns Conference 2019. I was involved in assisting with scheduling and communications work, managing attendee bookings and queries, whilst also conducting some social media management tasks.

In addition, I was able to use my design skills to create all marketing and branding materials for the International conference. My role within Fair Trade Wales was very diverse, and during the 11 weeks that I spent there, I was able to learn a variety of new skills. I was able to meet people from all over the world, many of whom belonged to organisations that I would love to work for in the future. Throughout the entire experience, I was given a lot of responsibility and immediately felt like an important member of the team.

“Fair Trade Wales has taught me to believe in myself and my abilities. The support I had whilst I was there has changed my outlook on the future”.

It has greatly improved my communication and time management skills, as it was often crucial that I stuck to strict deadlines whilst ensuring that my work was of high quality. Everyone at Fair Trade Wales is incredibly friendly and supportive and it was such a fun and happy place to work. The experience has improved my self confidence hugely, as I was continually supported and made to feel as though my input was valuable. I have definitely made some friends for life.

This internship has made me even more determined to pursue a career within the sustainability sector, as the entire experience was incredibly interesting and rewarding. The people that I met along the way were amazing, and I would love to have the opportunity to work with some of them again in the future. Working for Fair Trade Wales has taught me even more about my home country and Welsh culture and values, something which I didn’t expect to happen.

I have decided that I would like to stay living and working in Wales as I am passionate about supporting Welsh businesses and the people who live here. As a result of a connection that I made whilst working at Fair Trade Wales, I secured a part time job with another sustainable organisation in Cardiff and then went on to find employment with PHASE”.

If someone wanted to volunteer for Fair Trade Wales, I would tell them to go for it without a second thought. I would do it all over again if I could. But be prepared… you’ll never want to leave!