I spend a lot of my time on campus working in the Karten Print Shop. This has given me lots of great work experience and developed my work skills. It has helped me do well in my external work placements and will help me in any job I do in the future. It has given me confidence to look for a job when I leave College. I went from being a rookie to a professional!
The type of jobs I do in the Karten Print Shop include:
- Answering the telephone and telephoning external customers and taking orders,
- Using the heat pressing machine to decorate sport tops and leavers tops,
- Using the automatic guillotine to cut leaflet,
- Quality control such as checking the quality of business cards,
- Making badges and key rings counting them to make sure we have the right quantity,
- Printing and creating banners,
- Binding booklets
- Deliveries-around campus and to external customers picking up from campus,
- Cashing up the till,
- Printing off labels for jam jars then delivering them to the Food Centre,
- Showing visitors around the Print Shop,
- Manning the reception desk,
- Helping first year students and other students who are less experienced than me.
This has helped me develop many skills including:
- Confidence to talk to customers on the phone and in person,
- Communication skills and listening skills as I have to listen to customers carefully as they have detailed specific requirements,
- Administration and organisational skills for example in taking down orders, checking numbers, etc.,
- Practical skills – using specialist machinery like the heat press, guillotine, banner printer, badge making tool,
- Mentoring skills,
- Money skills.
My work in the Karten Print Shop made me feel ready to take on external work experience with Severn Trent. At Severn Trent I work on reception, greeting external customers. I use the intercom and CCTV to control people entering the building and I have to tell them off if they are tail-gaiting. The communication skills I have learnt in Karten in dealing with customers has allowed me to do my reception work with confidence.
I also use my practical and organisational skills when I rank the post and count how many items of post there are. These skills and my quality control skills are also essential when I do my other duty of doing fire safety checks of every building on the Severn Trent site. Without my experience in the Karten Print Shop I might not have had the confidence to take on this important role on Severn Trent reception.
My experience at Karten enabled me to take on the job at Severn Trent. It makes me feel I would have a lot to offer in any retail, business or office environment and will give me the confidence to apply for jobs when I leave College. I now have lots of essential work skills. I am a good communicator with a focus on customer service and quality of service. I mentor and help other staff. I have administrative and organisational skills and also practical skills. I understand the importance of quality work and quality control and know I can learn to use different types of machinery with confidence once I have been shown how.
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- This article was written by the Derwen College Karten Centre
- Featured in the Karten Summer 2020 Newsletter
- This article is listed in the following subject areas: Centre News