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Work Experience at Bass Coast Shire Coucil

By Mathew Copeland – Year 10 Wonthaggi Secondary College

By Portal Admin - 25th May 2019 - Back to News

Bass Coast Shire Council wasn’t my first preference on work experience but after being involved with it, I feel it’s been an amazing experience and would recommend the Communications and Engagement Team to anyone.

I started off my week by walking in to the very chic, professional looking offices and getting lots of lovely smiles and welcomes coming my way. As much as I was nervous, they really made me feel a part of the team and if I needed help at any point they would assist straight away. I felt the Communications Team really cared about me and getting something out of my work experience.

The Communications area was quite a bit different to what I was expecting. The team works together on a lot of projects and handles a lot more than I had imagined. I attended countless meetings on my time at Council about various topics, such as: Advocacy meetings about shaping the local areas future, meeting Ali Wastie the CEO of the Bass Coast Shire, and more general meetings on the media and recent news. Throughout my week I feel I really learnt a lot and I have a lot of respect for the Communications Team for working relentlessly.

Throughout my time I got to experiment with drafting Facebook posts and different media releases that, after reviewing, actually got released on the official Facebook page which made it feel a lot more professional and like I was included in the real deal.

Another part of the work I did was local media highlights. This entailed reading through three local newspapers and reporting back on any articles mentioning the Bass Coast Shire Council. After reviewing I would list the article, a small description and overall emotion of the piece; this report is sent to Councillors as a media snapshot.

I really like the idea of the Comms team because they actually have to go out and do their research which might mean travel to obscure, interesting locations and meet a lot of different people to get the answers they’re hunting for.

I also had the oppotunity to meet the Acting Mayor, Cr Bruce Kent, and attend a meeting to discuss the weekly plans and to help the Communications Team set out and organise their schedule better for the week. I fell in love with the area of Communications because you get to interact with every different group in the building due to being in charge of how the business of Council is displayed to the public.

A very interesting and fun part of the work experience was the 3mfm radio show. I got to write up the whole script for everyone to use and even got to have a long feature in speaking and being a part of the show! The script included the main local news topics or queries through the week that I had to expand on and research carefully to get a quality piece.

Sadly, before I knew it, it was my last day. Once again I feel like I really learnt a lot out of this week and would recommend this area to anyone that is thinking about work experience places. Special thanks to the Communications Team for taking me in and showing me what your job is all about - alongside with such nice warm personalities and helpful nature.


Work experience student Mathew Copeland with Coucil CEO Ali Wastie.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: support@gippsland.com