Our wonderful work experience student Eve shares some reflections from her placement
Before I started my work experience placement at the Heritage Network, I only knew the absolute basics when it came to marketing and communications. But what I did know was that heritage was a sector I was hugely interested in as I love crafting engaging stories based around community. I’ve come out the other side with knowledge on marketing plans, extra excel skills, experience in copywriting, social media campaigns and more video production practice than you can shake a stick at after interviewing trustees at the Bourne Town Hall Trust. Perhaps most importantly, I also learned how to speak confidently in Teams meetings with people I’d never met before… and how useful 321s are (if you know, you know).
My placement began on Monday 16 June, after meeting Beth Crockett, the Marketing and Communications Officer at the Network (who enthusiastically took me under her wing and really showed me the ropes!) I spent the first few days diving into the Network’s brand guidelines (turns out I love the colour magenta), selecting eye-catching photos from the image library and learning how to write a marketing plan. I joined two staff meetings and shared that I was a third-year BA Journalism student at the University of Lincoln, keen to learn more about the sector.
The rest of the week was a mix of reviewing social media performance, helping write a promotional email for the 2025 conference, and sitting in on a few of Beth’s meetings to see how she works her magic.
One of my highlights was drafting a social media campaign for the Network’s 10-year anniversary, celebrating past achievements and spotlighting the team who brings it all to life. On the flip side, one of my biggest challenges was creating a spreadsheet to track conference promotion. I’d had limited experience with Excel, but I left feeling confident I could build one from scratch.
My favourite task? Meeting Jane Gabbutt and Katrina Lloyd from Bourne Town Hall Trust and learning about their £3.3 million project to transform the Old Town Hall into a centre of arts, culture and heritage funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The passion and commitment they bring to this as volunteers is truly inspiring, which made it easy to produce a video that captured their story.
In the second week, I focused on writing a growth plan to improve the Network’s TikTok reach and shape content around the Youth Forum. I also achieved a key goal: learning to write a press release.
I’m so grateful for the experience I’ve gained during my time at the Network. Huge thanks to Beth and the whole team for being so welcoming and for showing me how vibrant, community-driven and exciting the heritage sector is. I’ll be carrying everything I’ve learned into my future career.
