Work Experience Takeover at COTS
Hello, my name is Logan and I am a student from Porthcawl Comprehensive School here at COTS for my work experience. So far, I have had a very hands-on experience helping design, create and publish multiple different things on the company’s social media pages. I have been lucky enough to be given a tour of all the different parts of the site by the wonderful staff here at COTS. Here is a day-by-day diary/blog/record of what I got up to over the day with the IT department.
Day 1
When I first arrived at the site at around 7:45 am, I was given a tour by compliance and audit manger Gerwyn, which was very rewarding to see all the “behind the scenes” of courses as well as most other aspects of the courses, including the classrooms and practical work. After that I was given a tour of the company’s website, resources and social media pages by Nathan, the marketing and IT supervisor, who I was with for the rest of this day.
After looking through some of the company’s resources, I had a talk with Nathan about social media, websites, blogs, promotions online, marketing and more, to further broaden my knowledge on these subjects, which I will find incredibly effective for my Computer Science GCSE.
Jumping straight into the hands-on work, I was tasked with creating a promotional poster and Facebook post, promoting the NPORS CAT and Genny courses COTS’ provide, which will be available to see on the Facebook page linked here: https://www.facebook.com/cotstraining .
After working on this for about half an hour, I was taken into the Board room with Nathan and Joshua, to observe the company website’s quarterly report. Here, I got to look at analytics associated with the website, as well as pitch any changes or ideas I had. This was an exceptionally rewarding experience getting to see more of the “behind the scenes” of COTS, as well as being able to be heard on any ideas I had. Afterward I moved back into the promotional work, which you will be able to view by the time this blog releases.
Not long after, I was taken outside with a camera and got the opportunity to take some photos of one of the RTITB Vehicle Mounted Lift Truck courses, which you can find here: https://www.cotstraining.co.uk/courses/rtitb-vehicle-mounted-lift-truck/ . After taking lots of photos, I was able to create several posts promoting the same course on COTS’ Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages, which I also learned to schedule for later dates, so that I do not have to manually upload each of them. Before posting anything, I was tasked with editing, selecting, cropping and manually changing all of the photos I took using Adobe Lightroom.
During my lunch beak at 12, I was given a ride by company director James over to Railside, COTS’ outdoors construction training facility. Here I saw all different kinds of dumpers, telehandlers, and other vehicles in action. I also got to see how some of the construction courses run, particularly the ones using the large scaffolding towers on site. It was very nice to see another aspect of the company, plant and construction, after spending time in and around the IT and industrial side of the company.
Day 2
On the 2nd day of my work experience, I started by logging into the computer and checking the analytics of some of the things I posted on COTS’ social media yesterday, overall, I was really pleased with their performance, with one reaching over 1500 views, which I was especially proud of.
I was with Nathan again on this day, and we started off by converting all the handbooks COTS use from digital files that we had to print for customers, to scannable QR codes which can be given out on small, easy to manage cards for customers to access the handbooks online instead. This task took up most of my morning, but I found it very interesting learning how to turn a simple link into a QR code and then design an easy-to-understand set of rules on the company’s website, which users can follow by clicking buttons and following the new section of the website I designed on Dolia.
After a short break, I went back to The Railside site, this time with Nathan, to have a go at taking some photos of the NPORS Telescopic Handler (Telehandler) (N010) course, that was taking place as I visited. You can find this course here: https://www.cotstraining.co.uk/courses/npors-telescopic-handler-n010/ . I spent around 20-30 minutes figuring out the best shots with a normal camera, as well as learning how to maneuverer and capture photos and videos with the help of Nathan on the drone.
Returning to the Llandarcy site, I spent the rest of my time up until lunch working on several more social media posts for all 3 platforms, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn promoting the new “#workexperiencetakeover”, which is the cause of me writing this, the posts I made include a short introduction to what I have been doing with my time here at COTS, as well as a short informative post about the Tele-handler course I observed earlier on in the day. Afterwards, I had a break and continued to work on the social media for a short while, until I begin the process of uploading this blog.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences here at COTS as much as I did, and if you have any queries for the team here at COTS, don’t hesitate to call: 01792 587250 or email info@cotstraining.co.uk
-Logan