£11.44 per hour + £1.38 holiday pay
Advertising End Date
24 Feb 2025

Role & Department Overview

This micro internship is for 30 hours in total (including 4 hours for training) and is aimed at students who may not have had any professional prior work experience and are looking for an opportunity that supports them to develop their employability skills.

 

Eligibility

To apply for this micro internship, students must be part of GROW Your Future.

GROW Your Future is an opt-in scheme for UK undergraduates and postgraduate taught students who also meet specific Widening Participation criteria, e.g. students who are:

  • first in their family to go to university;
  • in receipt of a Lancaster Bursary;
  • received free school meals or from a low participation neighbourhood
  • over 21 when they start their first undergraduate degree;
  • Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic;
  • disabled (including learning disabilities, physical or mental health conditions);
  • care leavers or have caring responsibilities, or estranged from family
  • a refugee or asylum seeker, from a gypsy or Traveller community, or from a military family

For more information and to sign up see the following link GROW Your Future | ASK - Lancaster University

The Lancaster Success Programme (LSP) – delivered by the Student Success Team - is an award-winning, coaching-led initiative designed to empower students from underrepresented backgrounds. It encourages them to explore their unique definitions of success, while helping them make meaningful reflections and set purposeful goals to work toward achieving them.

Part of the Social Mobility and Student Success Department, the LSP is a key component of the whole lifecycle approach. We collaborate closely with the Widening Participation (WP) Team and the Evaluation and Impact Team to ensure our efforts are meaningful and align with the university's Access and Participation Plan.

The Student Success Team is looking for an enthusiastic and creative student to help improve our Mature Student and LSP webpages. You’ll have the opportunity to research, design, and implement changes that make our pages more engaging, informative, and user-friendly, ensuring they meet the needs of our students. If you’re passionate about making a positive impact and improving the online experience for others, this is a great opportunity to get involved!

We value an authentic student voice and are looking for a candidate who will bring fresh ideas, actively listen to the feedback of their peers and key stakeholders, and create engaging, user-friendly content that truly resonates with the intended audience.

Start Date: 31st March 2025

End Date: 28th April 2025
 
Weekly hours: Approx. 10-15 hours a week but flexible
 
Location: On the Lancaster University campus

Job Description

Main Responsibilities:
 
  • Research and Insights – Explore the purpose and origins of the webpages through collaboration with teams outside the department. Collect feedback from current students to understand their experiences with the webpages, identifying what works well and where improvements can be made. Conduct a review of similar webpages at other institutions to gather inspiration and best practices that can help enhance our own content and design.
  • Collaboration and Design – Design improvements based on student feedback to enhance both the functionality and overall user experience of the webpages. You will collaborate with the Student Success team, presenting your findings and proposed changes to ensure alignment and gather further input before moving forward with updates.
  • Implementation – Take action on your final proposals to transform the website, bringing the enhancements to life and ensuring the changes are seamlessly integrated to the Mature Student and LSP webpages.

Person Specification

Skills:
 
  • Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with different teams and stakeholders.
  • Research and analytical skills, with the ability to gather and interpret feedback from diverse audiences.
  • Creative problem-solving skills, with a keen eye for design and user experience.
  • Familiarity with web design tools or a willingness to learn.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Ability to manage time effectively and work independently while meeting deadlines.
  • Attention to detail and a passion for creating user-friendly digital experiences.
  • Basic understanding of web accessibility and inclusivity best practices, or the desire to learn more.

Experience:

  • While prior work experience is not essential, any experience in web design, development, or related academic projects will be beneficial.
  • Experience working in a team setting, either through university projects, volunteering, or extracurricular activities.
  • A proactive attitude and a willingness to learn new skills and tools in web design.
  • Experience in research, surveys, or focus groups, whether through coursework, personal projects, or extracurricular activities.
  • Interest in current trends in web design, especially in educational or student-focused environments.

As this internship is aimed at students who do not have prior professional work experience, please draw upon examples from extra curricular activities, hobbies, interests, volunteering and part time work in your CV and cover letter. 

Please also outline in your CV and cover letter why you believe this micro internship will benefit you and your career progression.

Working in this role will help develop the following skills and experience:

 
  • Collaboration
  • Creativity
  • Curiosity
  • Exercising Professional Judgment
  • Knowledge Sharing
  • Organisation
 
For further information please contact Rachel Ireland [email protected] or Hannah Critchley [email protected]
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

You are required to submit a cover letter to support your application. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered.

 

Please note: Unless specified otherwise in the advert wording, this role is only open to individuals living in the UK.

Under the terms of this work, we endeavour to provide the advertised number of hours however, hours are not guaranteed and that work may cease if there is a fall in demand. 

Adverts that display a closing date should be treated as a guide. We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so we advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment.

Help and advice on making applications can be found on the Lancaster University Careers pages. Visit www.lancaster.ac.uk/careers.