Shared Parenting Scotland | Case Study
IAN MAXWELL | NATIONAL MANAGER – SHARED PARENTING SCOTLAND
SHARED PARENTING SCOTLAND ARE AN EDINBURGH BASED CHARITY THAT WORKS WITH PARENTS AND CHILDREN GOING THROUGH A SEPARATION BY OFFERING SUPPORT, ADVICE AND GUIDANCE THROUGH THE DIFFICULT TIMES.
PROJECT : SOFTWARE ENGINEER / DIGITAL MARKETER
CLICK HERE TO POST A PROJECT FOR FREE!
WHAT WERE THE PARTICULAR PROBLEMS YOU WERE TRYING TO SOLVE BEFORE YOU CAME TO UDRAFTER TO GET AN INTERN?
We were experiencing far more enquiries because of COVID related issues and up until that point we were running we were running face to face training programs throughout Scotland, but that became completely impossible once the COVID restrictions started. So we needed to find other ways of delivering this training as the training that we’re doing is very relevant as it was about communication skills, about stress management, about parenting in difficult times.Also training about money issues, because a lot of people are facing real financial strain because of COVID. So, all these topics are things that we want to get across to the people who get in touch with us and moving the training online was the easiest way for us to reach people in that way.
WHY DID YOU FEEL YOU NEEDED AN INTERN?
We needed an intern because we didn’t have the skills necessary to develop, design and engineer the online training, and we also wanted more capacity because our existing staff were pretty busy. Getting that knowledge from somebody who had just finished doing training or a degree in that field was very important as it’s added a whole set of skills that we wanted to tap into.
HAVE YOU EVER HIRED AN INTERN BEFORE YOU APPROACHED UDRAFTER?
We have had interns in the past and we’ve always used interns for specific projects, because when you’re a busy organisation and the enquiries are incoming all the time, it’s very difficult for your staff to actually focus on making one project work. So that’s where having an intern is great, apart from any skills they bring in, just having an intern who can concentrate on one piece of work and get it done within a fairly tight deadline.
WHAT WAS THE RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT INTO BRINGING AN INTERN ON?
The most tangible results are that we’ve now got four separate training courses online. People are using them. People are taking part in the training and getting the learning. It also allowed us to do a few other graphic design projects online, we did a review of all our work in 2020, we had a sort of a little bit of film that was developed showing the different things we’ve been doing.The intern who did the work for us, also produced a really good-looking annual report for us. So, there were lots of different benefits from bringing in somebody with these skills.
WHY UDRAFTER COMPARED TO SOME OF THE OTHER EXAMPLES YOU MAYBE SOURCED INTERNS THROUGH BEFORE?
We like the idea of just tapping into newly qualified or people who are in the middle of courses because we wanted to get the sort of skills, there’s an ageist thing here, that our staff are all somewhat older and we do want to tap into a younger generation who’ve got all sorts of different experiences in using online processes. Originally it wasn’t a full-time permanent job we had an offer but we have continued that link with the person.So it has developed into a sort of a long-term bit of work where we’re using her one day a week.
HOW DID YOU FIRST HEAR ABOUT UDRAFTER? WHAT SORT OF PIQUED YOUR INTEREST?
I honestly can’t remember. I think I must have either received emails from you or maybe it was just searching but for some reason it just popped out of the ether and it just seemed to be a very suitable scheme for us at the time and it met a need very quickly.
WHAT AREA DID YOU THINK YOU GOT THE MOST VALUE OUT OF UDRAFTER?
Identifying a number of suitable people and also making it easy for us to choose between them because we weren’t faced with hundreds[ of candidates]. We had half a dozen people to looked at and It [Udrafter] provided a communication channel so that we could find out a bit more about each person. So it gave us the framework of an agreement with them, which is always useful to have a process for a formal agreement with people, without having to develop it all yourself.
Again, it’s just it just saves time. A small charity, time spent on any administrative task is time that you’re not spending doing your more supportive and creative things. So anyone who can take on some of the administrative load is really useful.
WOULD YOU BE TO RECOMMEND UDRAFTER? WHY SHOULD SOMEONE POTENTIALLY LISTENING TO THIS SHORT VIDEO TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW?
We would. We were very satisfied with the person who came through for the project, and we would certainly recommend it to anyone else who’s looking for an intern with particular skills.