My journey as a Management Trainee
After three years of undergraduate studies and a fair bit of internship experience, I was still not quite sure of the career choices I should make. Before I could start to rebuild my thoughts on whether I was ready to take up professional work life, a new and exciting job opening in UNMC was introduced to me. The Management Trainee Program! It’s a two year program where in the first year trainees gets trained in four different departments of the campus for three months each. After the successful completion of this training, in the second year the trainees get to choose the department they are willing to work in. The decision also depends on the trainee’s performance and availability in a particular department.
My first day of work was like a never before experience. I always saw university’s management from the perspective of a student, but now the roles had changed and I had become a part of the management. I realized the importance of being a UNMC employee when I signed my employment contract. During the orientation I was reminded that as a staff it would be my responsibility to convey the right image of UNMC and work towards its progress.
In the past year I worked with campus Environment Sustainability Department, International Office and Finance Office. I experienced that each department in UNMC had its own style of working and something unique to offer me. Environmental sustainability had been a very different, yet equally interesting department that had immense job scope. I took individual projects and wrote articles for the campus magazine to spread awareness on some CSR activities the university was involved in. International office gave me the opportunity to enhance my marketing skills. I interacted with prospect students, responded enquires on courses and took them for campus tours. I felt quite at ease working here as I shared my personal experiences being a student of UNMC with parents.
When I started working with finance office, I realized how streamlined the entire process was. As a student, I could have never gotten the chance to experience the entire financial process of such a big institution. Being one of the biggest and also the most important departments, finance office offered me a lot to learn. The staff was quite friendly and they were enthusiastic to teach me how the financial software works. I was given major responsibilities like to assist staff claims and handling other account payables. Selling of cash cards was one of the highlights during my stay in finance office. It was a nice learning experience answering to student queries and assisting them.
Currently I am placed with Corporate Marketing and it’s also my last department. Marketing is an area that personally interests me and I am very keen in gaining some hands on experience with the social media marketing of UNMC via twitter and other networking sites. There’s a lot that this department offers in terms of creativity and exposure. One year of my training period is coming to an end and I can safely say that Management Trainee Program has surely broadened my knowledge, creativity and critical thinking skills. It has also helped me get a clearer picture of what I want to do in future. I have already decided on the department I am willing to work permanently with for the next one year. I am anxiously waiting for a response from the management and hoping to hear something positive so that I can update you all with some of my new experiences there.
Blog written by
Darshika Chaturvedi
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If you want to find out more about the Management Trainee Programme, kindly refer to the information provided below by Mavis Tsang, the Director of Student Experience.
The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (herein refer as The University) aimed at grooming our talented and potential students in shaping them into the organizational corporate culture and eventually leading them to become a great corporate leader.
The Programme targets The University students graduate from various fields/disciplines which are selected and assigned to operating units within various divisions. This 2 year programme is to allow the UNMC’s Management Trainee (herein refer as trainee) an opportunity to learn about the university operations and to build a career in education management. This is done by rotating them to work in 4 different departments throughout the first 12 months.
During the first 12 months, the trainee will have an opportunity to work for at least 3 months in one department and then proceed to another department. The trainee will then be able to experience different aspects of the operation and this will help him/her to know what kind of work he/she prefers after the completion of the 1 year programme.
The next 12 months would be a placement in one of the departments they have worked at before or join a project as needed. We will be offering 2 trainee positions each year.
Four departments will be selected by Management to be involved in this programme to allow the trainee to learn and have an overall picture of how the university administration works.
Working inside Finance Office at the Trent building!
At Corporate Marketing Office. My last department for the year.
During my work stay at International Office. Sitting at the inquiry center to attend walk-in students inquires.
Picture taken outside Finance Office!
Picture taken near the campus lake. Working for my first department under Campus Environment Sustainability.
Very nice article on your journey from a student of nottingham university to employee of that university. Keep learning, keep going and keep growing.