Work Experience Reviews

We have had a couple of students join us for work experience recently, here’s some of their thoughts on what they got up to with us and at the BHA.

Chloe Jordan

This month I secured some time at the British Horseracing Authority for some work experience with the team there. I was welcomed with a presentation of Careers in Racing and the many opportunities they had to offer.

From this I was made aware of a variety of different apprenticeships, roles, colleges and programmes. Educating me of the vast number of possible pathways within the industry. I then started shadowing Sean Simara who took time out of his way to thoroughly explain how to use their websites and each step he was doing, while setting me off independently to do small tasks.

One of these tasks was researching and reviewing new campaigns such as Going is Good and Club 26. Another task was to look at the timetables of well-known events the team were attending and by using my initiative, work out when their stall would be most busy. These tasks encouraged me to think for myself and allowed me to get more of an insight into the industry.

The next day I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Lingfield Racecourse, seeing firsthand the behind the scenes routine of races. Being extremely passionate about horses, visiting the Equine Welfare team was the most interesting part of the day for me, allowing me to talk to many members of the team at Lingfield that day (such as Darren Stone and Peter Double) to develop an understanding of their roles. I then got to observe the functions of the weighing room along with accompanying two Starters to receive an insight into their duties. To finish my day at Lingfield Racecource Sean organised to meet with the Stewards, ensuring I had a full understanding of what a race entails from the beginning to the end.

The last day I spent at the British Horseracing Authority was in their office in London. Here Sean showed me how to create and upload content onto their YouTube and Twitter platforms and allowed me to practice this myself. This was for promotional material on early careers programmes. Plus for an upcoming race which the Careers in Racing team focus on. Here I had to research the horses and jockeys and come up with a promotional post pre-race for the online audience. The week I was at the BHA the team were preparing for their 35^th year alumni event for the development programme so I had various ad hoc roles focused on this event. I also checked the Careers In Racing website for dead links which I learnt are unattractive for a company to have.

Sean then explained how what we saw at the racecourse is put into play in the office ensuring all of my questions were answered. My experience at the British Horseracing Authority has been incredibly valuable and insightful, I cannot thank Sean enough for making my experience so enjoyable.

Cassidy

I really enjoyed my week of work experience at the British Horseracing Authority, being able to see multiple types of jobs inside of one company as well and being able to go see horse racing live allowed me to learn lots about the different job opportunities. I’d say my favourite jobs were working with media and the judge, seeing as I take art and will most likely go on to work in graphic design.

The knowledge on website layout and what generally stands out online will assist greatly. If I were to go into the racing industry I’d most likely train to be a judge as working with one was fun and I can definitely see the appeal in working as one.

It was also interesting to learn more about more widespread office jobs, learning about the numerous things a receptionist does was really cool as previously my knowledge on the job was limited.

Personally, I enjoy working in the office and was grateful for this opportunity.