Zoe Plummer from Fulford School in York completed a four-week paid internship at Aviva. Here, she shares how her internship helped give her the knowledge and confidence to kickstart her future.

Feeling anxious and unmotivated

As a result of both anxiety and ADHD, my school and social life have been difficult. To be honest, I was quite anxious and unmotivated before the Career Ready programme. I was doing the bare minimum at school and had little interest in it. I was under the impression that university was my only route after school and that resulted in feelings of fear about making plans for the future.

When I joined Career Ready, I will admit that I didn’t really look forward to the internship. I thought I’d get bored and would push through it just to have something to put on my CV. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I was reassured by the career paths of others

During my internship, I worked with the Business Intelligence team at Aviva on a range of different projects, including auditing, editing, and production. Alongside the day-to-day of working in an office, the part I enjoyed most was getting to learn about the different job roles and career opportunities at Aviva.

I was introduced to other colleagues and learnt about their roles and the paths they had taken to get there. It was reassuring to hear from people who hadn’t taken the traditional route of university after school.

New motivation about my future

I woke up every morning looking forward to work which was something I never thought I’d do. I feel like my internship has made me into a more well-rounded person, with real-life experience and confidence.

I did something I never thought I could, and I genuinely think I’m a totally different person because of it.

This experience has highlighted to me how important internship opportunities are for young people. It doesn’t just provide an experience that will look good in a job application, but it helps build confidence and more importantly helps us see career pathways beyond the traditional routes that we are offered in school.

I feel more empowered and motivated to actively look for the future I want rather than settle for one I felt I was being pushed towards, putting my mental health and happiness first.

I’ve now put plans and goals in place for the future which include taking a year out after school to explore options that might be more suited to me like a degree apprenticeship.

Get involved today and help more young people like Zoe kickstart their futures.