Espresso takes pride in the number of young people to whom we have offered work experience. We encourage young people to work in all our departments in the hope that it will give them some career guidance. Experience varies enormously from creating web pages and multimedia content, to observing how voice-overs are produced, to routine tasks like dealing with mail. The scope for learning is considerable and depends very much on the individual.
Espresso has a very friendly and open culture and this is echoed from the feedback of previous work experience candidates:
If you are interested in doing work experience at Espresso, please contact us using this form or email workexperience@espresso.co.uk.
Staffordshire University
Date of Work Experience:August 2008
I really enjoyed my time spent at Espresso and was pleasantly surprised at the fact the work I was given would be used on the internet in the following weeks. After speaking to Jean a week before my visit, she explained she wanted me to edit episodes of series' down to several short clips in order for them to be used online. I was extremely pleased with this, as I would love to work in this field and this experience gave me a taste of what to expect in the media industry.
Upon arriving at Riverside studios being slightly nervous, I was welcomed warmly by Roy John, who introduced me to the staff and gave me a tour around the building. I started in the post production suite with Manuelo where I was given a selection of tapes to edit. I quickly got into the work flow and really enjoyed it. Soon after I started making progress on the initial 5 tapes, I was given other smaller jobs to do by other members of staff. These included creating internet links with moving video clips. I hadn't had much experience with uploading and constructing internet sites and I soon felt my knowledge of the industry had grown as I learned new skills which would help add to my portfolio.
As the work continued to pile on I had a few stressful moments as deadline pressures meant we had to concentrate on the jobs which would air sooner. After a day or two I found my confidence and I got back into the flow of editing. Initially I hadn't really seen much of what espresso does but after seeing several primary and secondary maths and science episodes I found myself thinking, I wish I had this before my Sats and GCSEs. Unfortunately after watching a few episodes I felt slightly guilty that I couldn't answer most of the GCSE questions.
During the end of the week I had finished most of the main jobs which I had been given at the beginning of the week. I met Jean on the Friday and she offered me the chance to come back the next week to start a few other jobs. Upon returning I felt I had a grip of what I was expected to do and I found I got into the flow of work immediately. I tackled similar jobs which I had encountered the previous week, and was given a few odd jobs to finish. These included using several different editing programmes in conjunction to create more internet previews and screen grabs. I found that a few of the jobs I had started initially were already on the internet which was a nice surprise. I finished everything I had to do and felt satisfied in the fact I had created a varied range of media in my time there.
I'm extremely grateful to everyone who helped me get the position as it genuinely benefited me and gave me a much stronger idea of what happens in the media industry. I feel like this could lead me to go on and pursue different forms of media which I hadn't encountered before this placement.
St. Columbia College
Date of Work Experience: July 2007
DAY 1
On the first day I went into the development department, after meeting the head of HR and the C.E.O., and observed a meeting in which they discussed this weeks news update, I then spent the day helping to write and obtain pictures for an article for the update.
DAY 2
On the second day I went straight to a sound recording studio called Soundhouse where I watched voice-overs being recorded for this weeks news stories, I then went back to Riverside Studios and helped to change some of the product to incorporate the Swedish translations.
DAY 3
On the third day I continued what I was doing on day two in the morning and then moved on to using Macromedia Dreamweaver to update some parts of Espresso with a new navigation bar. I really enjoyed this task as I am very interested in web development and programming.
DAY 4
On day four I went to the marketing department and updated a spreadsheet containing invoices and I had to look up schools I.D. numbers and then enter the number of pupils in each school into their invoice. This task was a bit repetitive and got slightly boring towards the end pf the day but I understand that it was a good experience and that you sometimes have to do boring, repetitive tasks at work.
DAY 5
On day five I went to the Tech. support department and spent the morning learning what they do and I listened in on a call to see what sort of problems customers come up with and how they fix them. I then helped to fill in a spreadsheet that had some missing information in it.
The best thing this week was going to Soundhouse and watching the voice-overs being recorded.
University of Michigan '11
Date of Work Experience: Summer 2007
When I arrived at espresso I had very little idea exactly what they did on a daily basis. Coming from America I had never been exposed to anything like Espresso. The first day I met with Aaron from customer relations who briefly explained the purpose of Espresso and introduced me to the people working in customer relations. The rest of the day I spent working with John in Production, editing HTML and working on Flash animation. The bulk of my time at Espresso was spent in Production either gathering content for Magda or working on the pages themselves. I found this very valuable having just finished a Uni level class on web design. John graciously introduced me to Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, Flash, and other programs that are standards in web development. During the first week I also met with the company founder, Lewis. I found this very interesting and gained some insight about how a business manager adapts to a constantly changing field.
During the second week at espresso I moved around a little bit more.
One morning I spent with Aaron from Customer Relations. He introduced me to programs like Heat and Goldmine and explained the average day in his department. I also spent several days with Rosie and Brian from Operations. In Operations I worked on database management and also put together packets of information for the client. I really valued my time here because it gave me a very different perspective on Espresso than what I had witnessed in Production.
Something that I loved about working for Espresso is the ability to gain experience in several different fields without ever leaving the building. I learned a great deal about how web development works on a real world level and the relationship between development, marketing, and customer relations. Having interests in computer science and business I learned first hand what working as a web developer or business operations manager is like. Another thing that I really liked about working for espresso is that the tasks I worked on were real projects that would eventually end up in the client's hands. Also, the employees here were extremely friendly and never shied from answering any of my questions. I greatly valued my time at espresso and would recommend it to anyone that is interested in Marketing, Customer Relations, Web Development, or Business Operations.
Name: Amy Rothstein
Date of Work Experience: July 2007
As a 17-year-old American, it was time for me to begin planning my work experience. I know that London seems like a far place to travel for two weeks of work, but I wanted a completely new experience. My dad, who consistently travels to London for work, mentioned Espresso Learning. We did some research and planning, and within a week, I had my plane ticket to London.
On the first day, I didn’t know what to expect. Walking through the glass doors of Riverside Studios was a bit intimidating, but once I met the employees, I felt comfortable and welcomed. For most of the two weeks, I worked in productions. I helped out with the news section, creating picture bulletins and writing safety guides. I got a chance to design parts of new modules, such as photo books on food groups. I spent a couple of days in marketing, where I learned about the exhibitions, newsletters and demos. Since I am going to study business at a university next year, I was grateful to spend time in that department. I also helped out in operations for a day. I helped organize data and create user guides. Overall, I really enjoyed my time at Espresso. Unlike most work experience, I felt like I made an impact on the company.
School: Wallington High School for Girls
Date of Work Experience: June 2007
When I first arrived at the Riverside studios’ doors I had a very sketchy idea of what Espresso Education was. I was somewhat reluctant to start my work experience because of previous placements where I had often been stuck with rather small, tedious jobs. I had envisioned myself labelled as ‘tea girl’ or even worse being given a mountain of filing on my Birthday. However, I couldn’t have been more wrong. My week at Espresso Education has been one of the most insightful, helpful and interesting experiences I have had in the ‘world of work’ so far. The relaxed atmosphere and the kind, hardworking employees made even the less exciting jobs a real pleasure. And as well as this I had many impelling opportunities during my stay, a diverse and enjoyable workload and an intuitive insight into how a Resource Production Company works.
On my first day at espresso I was met by Roy at reception, who calmed my apprehensions. I was then introduced to the production team around the office, including Magda, who would become my supervisor for the week. Everyone was really polite and showed a genuine interest to make me feel comfortable in the office. My first task in production was to work on the gallery page of the news. After a meeting with the team I was really surprised that they liked my ideas. For the Galley page I firstly sourced any important or arresting news for the week and looked for pictures to go along side the stories. I had to choose three stories, which children would want to read about, but also stories, which would be somewhat educational. In the end I decided to use: Gordon Brown’s new position in government, Andy Murray’s wrist injury and the Glastonbury weather conditions. These stories combined sport, politics, weather and music. I then used dream weaver to incorporate questions into the gallery page - such as ‘what is the picture about’ and I wrote a short caption about each picture. This task took up most of the day, however after that I sourced and cropped some book cover images from amazon.com so the many book reviews sent in by pupils all over the country could have a small picture beside them. However, because espresso is so popular I did not even get through A by the end of the day.
My second day, for me was the most eventful and exciting as I had the opportunity to go to the soundhouse recording studio, just off the Hammersmith and city line with Paul. The studios themselves were really busy and exciting, being home to many very different and successful companies such as innocent smoothies (who had vans which looked like cows!). Also, when I arrived there was a mix up between myself and another girl called Mia and I nearly ended up on the last episode of a radio 4 drama about world war one, which was quite entertaining. When I did finally arrive at the espresso studio I got to sit in on the voice over session for one of the modules about Vikings. It was really interesting to observe how it all worked and how the sound was prepared so it could later be manipulated in the video editing process. Then after my lunch break I carried on with the ‘A’ book review images, such as ‘All goalies are crazy’. Which was quite nostalgic, looking back at loads of books that I had read when I was younger. Next, I joined Paul in the video-editing suit where the sound was applied to a mixture of channel four and Granada footage. I really enjoyed this part of the day as I use a similar program at home, and I felt my opinion about the film was incorporated and valued in the editing process.
On the third day I carried on into B with the book review image search. However, three separate meetings – Hr department induction, the video editing suit induction and Sales induction interrupted this. These were for the new recruits, but I attended too. These talks really helped me to build up an idea of how espresso works and what its function is, for example I learnt about learning platforms as well as the role of all the different departments. The sales department were really friendly and had quite a positive attitude to admin work, which was refreshing to see. I also constructed questions for the ‘what do you think?’ page about the government’s new online carbon calculator with magda’s guidance.
By the fourth day I was D strong with the book reviews. And I again spent the rest of day in the video-editing suit, with Magda this time. Doing a different section of the module about Viking life. Again it was really fun and rewarding to contribute and see the end product. I was also shown a sneak preview of the new channel four learning clip bank resource and I got to see how the layout of the pages and the graphics helped add flair to the resources and the clips. I really look forward to when it comes out in September.
On my last day at espresso I worked in the marketing department, which was very different from the production department in the way that it was more administrative. However I still enjoyed myself and everyone was really relaxed and friendly (which I was used to by now). I got to help pack up and seal boxes, which were for a presentation by espresso at the beta awards. This included putting in case studies and leaflets into the boxes and sealing them using the red and white fragile tape! I also got to label the boxes with the address.
Overall I really enjoyed my stay at espresso education and would recommend it to anyone interested in media or resources. I would love to visit again and will take on board the things I have learnt here into later life.
School:
Dame Alice Owens
Date of Work Experience: October - November 2006
I organised my work experience placement at Espresso to gain an insight into the operation of a resources Production Company. I hoped to have a certain amount of responsibility in the workplace, and develop a greater understanding of the expectations made of an employee.
On my first day at Espresso I had little idea about what the company does and what the product Espresso actually is. I took a look at the website before going, but was still not entirely confident that I knew much about the company.
When I arrived at Espresso everybody was very welcoming. I was met by Roy who took me to Marketing, where I was required to spend the whole day. In Marketing, Heidi gave me a quick overview of the department and explained how the marketing team play an important role in the company. I was taught how to use Goldmine, which involved entering data into the system. Once I had grasped how to do the first few entries I found that I could work a lot quicker. After lunch Deon and Mark showed me a few of the campaigns that the team were currently working on which was interesting. I helped to prepare the leaflets and order forms that needed to be sent out to schools and was also taught how to use the franking machine which was fun! Everybody in Marketing was kind, patient and friendly, which enabled me to feel more confident about working as part of the team.
The following day I accompanied Paul to Sound House recording studio in Hammersmith. I met Wendy, who was one of the voice artists that works with Espresso. Wendy was told to read a short piece needed for part of the school curriculum, and I was able to watch, as a member of the Sound House staff edited the recording, which I enjoyed. In the afternoon, I was taken to Customer Services, where I hoped to learn about yet another important asset of the company. However, due to IT issues I was given the task of compiling order forms. Although this may not have been the most interesting of tasks, I like to think that I made the best out of the situation and looked at the positive aspects of learning something new.
I spent the next three days in Production, where I gained an insight into the editorial process. I carried out research for a resource for 5 to 7 year olds, and was showed by Elli where to look for photos, sounds and text. I also carried out work in one of their content management systems, processing book reviews. On my last day in Production, I was introduced to Photoshop, and began to prepare photos for a Key Stage 1 resource. This included enlarging the photos and adjusting the lighting and colour contrast. I was able to use the computer to prepare, process and present information. The working atmosphere was pleasant and relaxed and people made me feel like I was part of the team. I was able to sit, listen, take in new ideas, and ask anything that I felt unsure about.
Working at Espresso has helped me to understand more about work and the work place, but more importantly has taught me a lot about myself as a young adult. The staff have enabled me to develop aspects of my wider key skills, particularly working with others, and improving my own learning and performance. I would like to say thankyou to everyone at Espresso for helping to make the week a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
School:
Bristol Cathedral School
Date of Work Experience: October 2006
I had a really great time at Espresso. The range of experiences I had was much wider than I had expected, and I really enjoyed them all.
On the first day I went into the marketing department in Espresso, this was a new concept to me. I hadn’t really been interested in marketing beforehand but after Melody showed me how their system works, and how Espresso is advertised I was enthused.
Day two was even better! I went into the customer relations department where I met Joe who showed me how Espresso deals with technical queries and problems. Joe also explained how schools access Espresso using cache pilots, and how the remote cache pilots update over the internet.
On day three I went into the production department, where Magda asked me to design a webpage about the orchestra. I had to do research to find out what different instruments were in the orchestra, and give a brief description of each.
The next day I was introduced to Alan who showed me how Espresso design their websites, and how to use HTML, CSS, and Flash to make a successful webpage. Alan then explained to me how I could insert sounds into the webpages using JavaScript.
On days four and five I got the opportunity to add the finishing touches to my webpage. The production team also showed me how to include lists to make the webpage look a lot more user friendly!
I enjoyed my time at Espresso, and I would very happily return. I would also recommend it to anyone else who wanted experience of how a software business works. The team welcomed me warmly, and I was particularly impressed by the friendly ethos.
School:
Maria Fidelis
Date of Work Experience: July 2006
On my first day of work experience I was quite nervous but still very
excited to see what Espresso Education was all about. Sandra came to meet me
and took me to the Customer Relations department where I spent my first two
days. I met Rosie and Brian who both really welcomed me. I worked with two
of their computer systems, Goldmine and Heat which was really fun.
On my third day I went to the Production department which I counldn't wait
to go to. I got introduced to Magda there who was lovely and she showed me
what to do there. I even went to one of their meeting where they were
discussing something new for the Espresso product which was cool. I also met
Paul who make a short film of The Great Fire of London with me which I
really enjoyed doing.
On the morning of my forth day Roy took me to the Development department
where i was told about the computer systems at Espresso and how the actually
product was all in some sort of code. I also learnt how to take apart and
put back together a hard drive whcih a bit messy. After lunch I went back to
Production where Magda introduced me to Claire who deals with the French
part of the Espresso product. Claire then told me that she was making some
updates to some of the French bits and asked me if I could brainstorm some
ideas which I did and gave to her.
On the last day of my work experience I went to Production again, which i
didn't mind at all because i enjoy there. I did some work there and then Roy
took me to marketing where I met Deon who was a very friendly character and
she showed me what her job was abou She also got me to do some things for
her which I enjoyed.
My week at Espresso was very rewarding and i learnt a lot about what
everyone does there and would like to thank everyone for welcoming me so
warmly.
School:
Eltham College
Date of Work Experience: June 2006
Arriving at the Riverside Studios for my first day of work experience, I had only a small idea of what Espresso – both the product and the company – was, and after four weeks of GCSEs, I was slightly reluctant at the prospect of more work. However, I was met with a relaxed office atmosphere, and enthusiastic staff who were always willing to organize work for me.
I spent the first day in the technical support and operations department. After a brief tour of the office, I was shown how the employees used programs such as Goldmine and Heat to store information. They also explained how schools ordered the Espresso cache, and I listened in to a few customer calls from schools or technicians who needed help activating the product. The following day I went to Soundhouse recording studios in Hammersmith with Mike, a producer in Espresso’s multimedia department. Wendy, one of Espresso’s voice artists, recorded a voiceover for a short piece on “Baby Bears”, and I watched from the studio as the recording was edited by one of the Soundhouse staff.
The next day I was given the opportunity to work in the multimedia department and I helped Mike to compile a short film on ‘The Great Fire of London’ for an Espresso history module. Using a couple of old Grenada educational programs on the Fire of London, we took short sections of film, which contained relevant material such as clips of burning buildings or Pudding Lane. Mike also showed me how to use the ITN website to find and request footage that could be used in short films or news bites. We then compiled the clips and images to fit a pre-recorded voiceover.
On Friday, the last day of my work experience at Espresso, I was lucky enough to meet Lewis, the CEO of the company. Like the rest of the staff at Espresso he was relaxed and friendly, and seemed genuinely interested in my impressions of the company. Throughout my week at the Riverside Studios, I never felt unwelcome or uninvolved in any department, and I was impressed by the enthusiasm and optimism shared by all of the staff at Espresso. The week was very rewarding and was a great insight into such a fascinating new company.
School: Wallington High School for Girls
Date of Work Experience: June 2006
Espresso provided a more valuable week of work experience for me than I believe I would have received at most other multimedia or educational publishing companies. I was attracted towards this placement partly thanks to a parent working in the sales department, but also owing to the fact that Espresso, though acclaimed and well-known on the market, is still a small company: all the departments are under one roof (that of the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith), and I therefore had the opportunity to find out about the various stages involved in producing and sending out the content to schools.
I spent two days in the production department, one in technical operations, and two in marketing. Production gave me a chance not only to see how the actual content of the Espresso service is put together, but to add some myself. Helping with video editing was a particular highlight, and I also enjoyed going through the database of book reviews submitted by children.
My day in technical operations, which I spent updating the schools database, was cut short somewhat when an unexpected power surge caused the computers to begin popping and smoking; I was assured that this definitely didn't usually happen, and in fact may not have ever happened before, as everybody moved down to the foyer and stood around for a bit while various technical types attempted to work out what was going on. It was all rather exciting. Something can be said about the nature of Espresso and its employees in that when I arrived the next day, all the staff from the temporarily defunct computer room had simply set themselves up around the rest of the building and carried on with their jobs, rather than attempting to get some time off.
The friendly and helpful nature of everybody I met at Espresso cannot be stressed enough, especially in the case of the marketing department. The tasks I was given there were perhaps not the most exciting -- updating the database, putting together exhibition packs, guillotining flyers (although actually that was quite good fun) -- but the atmosphere in the office was so cheerful and relaxed that simply being there, whatever job I was doing, was a pleasure in itself. Espresso is one of the few companies I can think of where jeans and t-shirts are perfectly acceptable -- I haven't seen a tie all week -- and everybody seems to know everybody else, wandering freely in and out of each others' offices and exchanging various witticisms and pleasantries. I was even given an opportunity to meet and chat with CEO Lewis Bronze -- twice, in fact -- who told me all about the company's history and was genuinely interested in what I thought of the time I'd spent here.
Overall, I have really enjoyed my time at Espresso. I don't know if I'm likely to pursue any career connected to what I've done here, but I think that the wonderful atmosphere has somewhat challenged my assumptions regarding the business and publishing world: it's not always a corporate, almost clinical affair. Sometimes you come across a company where everybody gets excited about McFly being downstairs and nobody wears a suit, and I am glad to have done so.
Date of Work Experience: June 2006
I discovered Espresso through my sister, She is a teacher at a school with the Espresso primary system she was very impressed at the system and suggested I did my work experience here.
On my first day I was met at reception by Roy and taken to technical support, where I was to spend the next two days, during my time there I had to configure cache-pilots which were then sent out to schools this was difficult but Tom was always nearby and eventually I could do it on my own. On my second day I built a windows 98 testing computer for the production team to use. I found this all very interesting as I enjoy the technical side of ICT.
At the end of my second day I was introduced to Lewis the CEO who describe to me the role of the company and answered any questions I may have.
For my last three days I was in the productions team where I was using the multimedia software to do things such as edit videos, make animations and was even taught some action script. I found this very useful and there was always someone close by who I could ask for help when I got stuck. I was also involved in compiling the book reports sent in by children and testing certain new activities on the Espresso system, although I prefer the technical side of ICT I found Creative ICT very useful and enjoyable.
I found Espresso a incredibly worthwhile work experience, and was surprised at the amount of work I did in my week. The office was very relaxed and I found everybody there very friendly and always willing to help me.
Thank you Espresso this week was really enjoyable and I feel I will take a large amount of knowledge and experience away with me.
School:
Date of work Experience:
When I first arrived at Riverside Studios, the building was nice and big and seemed like a very friendly place. I met Sandra who was very nice, she showed me around and I met lots of other people that worked in Espresso. Everyone I worked with was very kind and made me feel very welcomed.
Although, I did do some admin work, I also got to do some interesting work, I used Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver, and this was a very exciting experience, as I have never used or heard about these programs before. I used Goldmine, which is a special program to store and access very important information. I also worked with spreadsheets. I worked with people from all the different departments and did different work with them.
I have a very good knowledge of how Espresso operates now and it was not what I’d thought it would be. It’s a very friendly place to be and its not just people working, although the staff does work, but they also have conversations while they work, which makes Espresso an even friendlier place to be. The dress code is casual, so this is what makes the environment not like an office, like on the news. I had a look around at the Espresso Software (that the schools buy) and I played around with the children’s games and read some of the stories. I even got to edit some of the stories myself using Flash.
I also worked in the marketing department, where I was a marketing assistant and I helped review a poster, so that if any changes needed to be made to make the poster easier to understand, for children younger than myself and I helped to research personalised bottles for Espresso for an event.
This experience was brilliant and I thank Sandra for letting me work here and giving me the opportunity to meet new people and learn new skills, which hopefully will be very useful for a future career and my CV. I also thank everyone else at Espresso for making me feel very welcome and for their kindness. Thank you again for this wonderful experience.
School:
Hurtwood House School
Date of work Experience: July 2005
Before I came to Espresso I (somewhat pessimistically) expected that I would be doing filing and making tea for the week as in previous work experience placements that I have done, the companies did not want to delegate their work to someone who was still in school.
However, I was very pleasantly surprised at the amount of work I was actually allowed to do! Most of the time I was editing tapes and voice-overs for different features of the Espresso network, and for the last two days I was given a whole project to do myself, although Matt (the editor) was always close at hand if I needed his help or advice.
The ‘making friends’ video that I edited is being put on as a feature of the Espresso website. The atmosphere in the office was really relaxed and everyone was really friendly, which helped to make my week at Espresso a brilliant experience; I learnt a lot about the different editing software that they use and the different aspects of the production and post-production process, which will undoubtedly help me with my media studies at A level and later on at university.
School: Featherstone high school
Date of work Experience: March 2005
Espresso is a Ltd company that provides educational material to mainly primary schools via an Internet connection. Each subscriber school has a "cache" where the data from Espresso is sent to (usually a lot of data due to the vast amount of videos), and stored so that it can be easily used by teachers and students alike, editorial columns and ‘for the most part’ videos are all combined in a child-friendly way by use of animated characters, bright/vibrant colours and various attraction methods!
My week at Espresso was spent mainly in the creative area of the company; I was given the task of updating the Espresso web page and formatting the old online news paper editions to a new format that would make it possible for a wider range of people to enjoy the interactive reading papers!
This was most interesting as art and designing web pages is something that I have a real interest in and I believe with the new skill I have learnt here I will be able to do this with a new and improved understanding.
Having the opportunity to do this was a real surprise to me as I thought that they would not allow me to take a definite role in the development of their next launch programme. It was a real experience as they send out updated broadcast to school every week, so they work assigned work to me had to be done correctly and efficiently. However the more mundane office tasks that one usually associates with work experience were not for me and I appreciate espresso for giving me the opportunity to take part in this unique experience.
Of course I had to do some of these task as the first morning I came I had to do scanning for the first half of the entire working day, this was extremely time consuming but it had to be done, however the rest of the week flew by when I was working with the present staff of the broadcasting department!
I would like to take the time to thank everyone at Espresso for making me feel so welcome. I learnt a great deal during my week, I would like to thank every staff member for making me feel a part of the company team which helped me a lot to settle in quickly and for making my experience an pleasurable one. I would thoroughly recommend Espresso to future work experience students; especially those who are looking to have an enjoyable yet learning experience. Any one who has an interest in wed designing and /or talking to people and being in a friendly environment would enjoy it here.
Espresso is a very flexible company when it come with/to dealing with students, as I have personally learnt! During my work experience week I had an hours journey to arrive at Espresso, and my supervisor took this into consideration and reduced my working hours. This made it very convenient for me and also ensured I would not be late or drained upon arriving to work! Not that I'm implying that if you live a distance away from espresso you shouldn't come. The journey added a valuable twist to my experience, I realised how travelling to work differs from going to school! So I recommend it to everyone not just the people who seem to live near this area!
=-) Thank you Espresso! =-)
Name: Natalie Lau
School: Maria Fidelis
Date of Work Experience: July 2004
I came to Espresso not knowing in detail what kind of company it was and what exactly it did. I was aiming mostly to learn more about web design and computed aided design and to learn more about an educational multimedia company.
On the first day I arrived and was extremely confused because I didn't know that Espresso was actually inside Riverside studios. I got to meet Sandra although she was very busy and had to do an interview, so I was shown around by Rosie and taken to the Customer relations and Management (Espresso is separated by many areas and I was focussed on mainly Production and CR & Management so I forgot the names of the other areas) They have quite a small office for two departments but there wasn't too many staff there either. Where I got into the wonderful world of filing which I didn't mind so much. I was shown the main website that schools have and I saw that a lot of Espressos content involved news articles and videos. In the afternoon I was put in Production (This involves multimedia and research/design and it's a big office with nice music!) to help make some buttons for the website on Photoshop which was quite fun.
Through the week I went through many tasks; I got to jump start the search system for their ITN tape archives (I wasn't told the proper name which meant I had to read lots and lots of ITN articles to think up words to use for searching. I also got to work with database/entry programmes like goldmine and I got a chance to try make the HTTPget server website which was also fun. Lots of Photoshop work (resizing, imaging adjusting etc.)! The atmosphere was casual and it wasn't somewhere where everyone had to be silent (although they concentrated a lot on work). It was quite relaxing and the office looks great (not like on TV).
I met a lot of the staff there and was told a lot of names (Which were very quickly forgotten). Everyone was absolutely lovely and friendly and that helped nerves a lot. Lots of thanks! I learnt lots (now I know what Espresso is finally and made a great impact on my skills on the computer. Thanks to everyone on the team for making this GREAT and I wish you all good luck in the future. Special Thanks to Sandra for arranging my work experience.
Name: Obie Campbell
School: The Ellen Wilkinson School For Girls
Date of Work Experience: May 2004
On my first day at Espresso Education I met Sandra. She was very friendly and made me feel comfortable as soon as I started the day’s work. I was shown around the marketing room because I would be working with them further on in the week. Everyone was really friendly and I said my hellos.
I was then introduced to the Editorial team. This is where they do animation, sound etc. Everyone again was so friendly and made be feel comfortable at once. I started off the day with doing some Internet research and I had keep in mind that the websites had to be child friendly. The next day I went on to check that the cached websites addresses were correct. I also sat in on an editorial meeting; I was surprised at how casual the environment was. The staff discussed what news coverage they were going to cover, keeping in mind that it had to be child friendly, they then went on to discuss what images they were going to use for the news capture of the week. I was assigned the task of sizing down the images using Adobe Photoshop and writing small captions for each picture. I enjoyed this because I like creative writing.
The next day I spent with the marking department. This room was smaller (and louder) but everyone was so friendly and happy. I learnt how to use Goldmine and Heat,which was interesting, although I didn’t get away from doing the filing! I also packed some collateral and brochures.
In the afternoon of the last day I spent some time with Editorial. I then did some fact sheets on artists for the art page. I did them on Dream weaver. I enjoyed this task because I had to do some Internet research, and then put the information I collected in my own words, which I enjoyed.
Doing my work experience at Espresso has given me a great insight into how a company runs and how much IT you actually have to know to be able to do your job. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone at the Espresso team. I greatly enjoyed myself. Thank you!
School: The Ellen Wilkinson School For Girls
Date of Work Experience: November 2003
To gain an insight into the world of work and to understand how a multimedia company like Espresso operates.
Espresso is a company which produces and delivers large amounts of educational material, aimed at schools (primary and secondary), in the form of a website. This website cannot be viewed on the normal Internet, but is available to schools who buy access to the website from Espresso. This is then stored on a single school computer to be freely and readily accessed by both students and teachers. This computer is then weekly updated via different delivery mechanisms. The Espresso website is totally unique and interactive, with lots of activities for children and teachers, including large amounts of interesting video footage. As there is no downloading process, the children and the teachers can view the videos instantly. Espresso also covers over a thousand varieties of news stories, which is updated weekly. Not only is this website user friendly (for all ages), but the extraordinary graphics and designs appeals to its viewers, retaining their interest. The cartoon characters, bright colours and other various animations are creatively combined together in a child friendly way. There are also activities for teachers to enjoy in the 'staff room' helping them plan their lessons effectively, as well as showing them how to use Espresso as a successful teaching aid.
The working atmosphere at Espresso was excellent. Everybody was so relaxed and friendly, which made me feel extremely welcome, helping me to settle in quickly. I was surprised at how well everyone got along with one another, creating a wonderful working environment. The open plan offices enabled communication to be transferred easily, and for different departments to interact openly with one another. Everyone had access to their own phone and email address (including me!), which was an efficient way for communication to be passed internally and externally. The dress code was casual with people working in jeans and tee shirts, helping to created a relaxed working atmosphere. The offices were all quite close together, so people were often walking in and out of each other's offices, reflecting the harmonious and friendly relationship between colleagues. Company nights out were a regular occurrence, which not only emphasised the positive bond within the work force but also helped to sustain that relationship.
During my week at Espresso, I was given a number of tasks to do each day. I worked alongside the marketing department helping them update their database, filing, preparing packages to be sent out to schools and organising letters. I found this work quite enjoyable, as I got an insight to how this company operated and the way it marketed it's product. On my second day I was able to visit the sound studio and observe how voiceovers were recorded for the videos. This was an enjoyable experience and would have to be the highlight of my week. For the remaining days, I worked in the accountancy and HR department and learnt a great deal about how their department was a fundamental part to the entire organisation. I got to write emails to Trainers, Research information on the Internet for the Production department, sort out interviews for the HR department, pack letters for Trainers, and answer questions concerned with the HR. Although I would have liked to work alongside the Multimedia Department (as that is where my interests lie), I did enjoy working with the other departments as it raised my awareness to how each one was an important asset to the company on a whole.
I would like to thank everyone at Espresso for making me feel so welcome. I learnt a great deal during my week, especially how important a friendly working environment is to mark a company's success such as Espresso. I would like to thank every staff member for making me feel a part of the company and for making my experience an enjoyable one. I would thoroughly recommend Espresso to future work experience students; especially those who are looking to have an enjoyable yet learning experience.
Name: Devin Farley
Date of work Experience: October 2003
Espresso is a company that supplies educational material to schools via satellite or over an Internet connection. Each subscriber school has a "cache" where the data from Espresso is sent to a stored so that it can be easily used by teachers in the form of worksheets, articles and predominantly video all combined in a child-friendly way by use of cartoon characters, bright colours and various other animations.
My week at Espresso was spent mainly in the creative area of the company;
I was given the task of designing frames and borders for videos and also layouts
of printable worksheets for one of the new upcoming modules. This was very
enjoyable as art and design is something that I take pleasure in and am also
quite good at. Being able to do this was actually quite a surprise as I expected
to be spending a lot more time with the more mundane office tasks that one
usually associates with work experience.
Of course I did not escape these completely, spending one morning in marketing
filling promotional booklets and doing some filing. Here, however, I also
learned about how Espresso generally deals with their customers and how they
go about fixing problems and installing hardware for use by the schools.
On the final day I learned a little about the administrative side of the company, in this case, the accounting aspect, which is not my favourite theme due my lacking of mathematical skills but was actually quite interesting anyway and showed how important this sector is in the running and survival of any company.
Overall I enjoyed my few days at Espresso, the employees are helpful if you have a problem and always make sure that there is something for you to do. The general environment was also pleasant, dress casual with a plentiful lunch break and opportunities to take small breaks throughout the day if you thought necessary. My week was very well arranged and I would recommend Espresso for anybody wanting a friendly and productive introduction to the working world.
Name: Sunil Maher
Date of work Experience: July 2003
Espresso is a company, which produces and distributes a large database of resources, called Espresso Education. The resources contain lesson plans for teachers and activities for pupils who are at primary, infant and nursery school stages. These resources are supplied in a CD format, and can be made into a part of school intranet. The Espresso Education resources are updated on a weekly basis. The resources are not available over the Internet, and the weekly updates are broadcast via satellite to the school.
When I first arrived at Riverside Studios I was surprised by the office
environment and it's location, which was completely different from what I
had originally expected. Besides the main Espresso office there is also a
restaurant and cinema at Riverside Studios. Everyone at Espresso was friendly
and welcoming on my first day. In the office the main dress code was casual.
The work atmosphere at Espresso was friendly,
everyone knew each other (there are about 35 people who are based at this
office), and in each department, people worked together as a team.
During the week I was at Espresso, my main aim was to see and learn how people in a work environment, interact with each other; whilst at the same time exploring possible career ideas. For the first three days, most of the work, which I carried out, involved working with the Multimedia Department. This work required the use of layers in Adobe Photoshop and creating a Site Map with Macromedia Dreamweaver During this time it was interesting to observe how the Espresso Customer Relations Department handled problems from their customers and how the latest broadcast was sent to different schools. On the fourth day, I raised some invoices and checked compatibility issues when Espresso Education is used on an Apple MAC system instead of a Windows PC based system. On my last day I gained insight into how the Accounting Department works at Espresso.
My time at Espresso was a brilliant new experience. I saw how people in a
company work together to produce and maintain a product. I learned some new
skills i.e. how to use different kinds of multimedia editing software. This
knowledge may be useful during future projects at school. I'd like to thank
everyone at Espresso for being welcoming and friendly, which also made my
first work experience placement rewarding and
enjoyable and would thoroughly recommend Espresso to future work experience
students.
Name: Cheryl Granville
Date of work Experience: July 2003
On my first day at Espresso, I was slightly nervous but I was assured by the nice welcome I got from the people in the office.
I was shown how to do the accounts and I enjoyed it, I found it very useful as it helped improve my typing.
I changed dates on a calendar for the editorial department and I got to look at the Espresso Primary and Secondary websites, the websites are really bright and fun to use with good games on the primary site.
I went to Access storage, which stores all the marketing materials and on my return put together information packs that are sent out to schools and the sales team who distribute them at events and to interested espresso subscribers.
The people at Espresso are really friendly and they all have a good sense of humour, it's a really nice atmosphere to work in. There wasn't as much for me to do as previous work experience students as it was coming to the summer holidays and so I didn't get a chance to do all the really 'get stuck in jobs'
I had a great time and I thank you all at Espresso for letting me do my work experience here and I now know what a work environment will be like.
Name: Natasha Skupinski
Date of work Experience: June 2003
When entering Espresso, my main aim during my week's work experience was to understand first hand the running of a business with my main interest in the Marketing and PR department. As I had no previous knowledge of the inside of a business, Espresso was highly suitable for demonstrating the intricate workings of each department but on a smaller scale.
During my time at Espresso I was given jobs with a range of responsibilities from organising the filing system to modifying spreadsheets which would have an immediate effect on the layout of the website viewed by the general public. I spent a day in the Marketing office assisting in the smaller tasks such as preparing packages to be sent out to schools and organising the picking up of parcels to be delivered. As well as this I obtained a good grasp of how the website is designed, an order is processed, the weekly newsletter is produced and a database is set up for a newly participating school. I found it extremely informative as these are jobs i never knew existed and the range of tasks that must be carried out to ensure the efficient running of the business is huge.
It was immediately noticeable how friendly and relaxed the staff are. I was given detailed instructions and there was always someone on hand to help. The atmosphere is casual and breaks can be taken whenever needed. I found it enjoyable to go to work every day and was given a range on tasks and in so many areas it could never become boring or repetitive. I hope that one day I could work in a business similar to Espresso and I feel that the experience I had is one that will become invaluable to me in later life.
Name: Byron Bekaraze
School: Featherstone High School
Date of work Experience: April 2003
I found it great fun during my week of work experience at Espresso Education. I learnt that Espresso is a big educational website from which primary and secondary schools subscribe to educational content which is updated weekly. I think this idea is excellent as it saves schools money and does not require Internet access.
My job at this company was to work as a media assistant. When I first heard about this I thought it was just about sitting on a computer the whole day doing some boring stuff but when I came in on the first day I was surprised by the variety of tasks I got to do. Examples included research, filing, raising invoices and listening into how incoming telephone calls are dealt with. I was also greeted with a great and comfortable atmosphere. This is why I would recommend doing work experience at Espresso Education to other students as it definitely gives you an understanding of how it is like in a working environment and makes you think about your future options.
Name: Francis Ng
Date of work experience: March 2003
Most of my time at work experience was divided between two things: administration
and learning. Learning basically consisted of sitting with someone with an
interesting job (there seem to be thousands of interesting jobs in media),
and in doing so, I learnt about a lot of things such as web design and development
as well as voice-over recordings and other media. I also looked at cutting
things down to size digitally.
My first day was one of introduction. I met everyone (and promptly forgot
all of their names). I was in the Production department, a wholly relaxed
atmosphere in a large, communal office of 10-15 workers where I set about
cataloguing a vast library of CDs via Excel.
As the week progressed, I took it upon myself to better organize my day -
rather than my original 10:00 - 16:00 day, I arranged with the HR Officer
to work 9:00-15:00. I felt I could concentrate far better in the morning than
the afternoon.
The next week was split between Customer Relations, Marketing and Production.
I enjoyed this as it gave me an insight into the corporate structure. Every
department had a "link" to another. This was usually Harley, the
production manager, everyone seemed to know him, from the highest manager
to the lowliest employee (yours truly!) This immaculate communication system
clearly maximised corporate efficiency and got the product out on time, every
time. Being in all the departments, I was able to follow the product through
from its production to its sale.
The last day was my favorite, it was spent in Production using Dreamweaver
and Flash to produce the product (an educational multimedia resource for pupils
of Key Stages 2 and 3). This was great, seeing how everything was done and
what the problems were. Flash animation is surprisingly easy but surprisingly
difficult at different times. Some things can be done with the click of the
mouse button, others are harder, and while this is happening, you are at all
times trying to save memory space. At the end of the day, everyone said goodbye,
I was given a copy of a written reference, and I started thinking about writing
this letter of recommendation. Overall, I enjoyed work experience. I was given
an insight into the corporate structure as well as being given a look at the
working environment. If anything surprised me, it was the relaxed atmosphere.
Anything could be worn, and there was much more freedom than in school. A
lunch hour could be taken at any time and, to a certain extent, you could
choose your working hours. Therefore, I had a great time and would recommend
Espresso to anyone else seeking work experience.
Name: Tina Kukran
School: Drayton Manor High School
Date of work experience: February 2003
To gain an understanding of working within a multimedia company.
Espresso delivers educational content to schools in the form of a website. This website cannot be viewed on the normal Internet but it is bought from Espresso. Espresso stores it on a single computer in the school and is updated weekly via satellite. It is a very interactive website with loads of activities for students to try and a large amount of video footage. Espresso also covers over a thousand topical news stories, updated weekly. There is also something for teachers called Staffroom, which they can use to plan lessons and help them in using Espresso as an effective teaching aid.
The two weeks that I worked at Espresso I did a number of varied tasks. I did Internet research, raised invoices, data entry, filing, gave feedback on one of the upcoming modules. I also got a chance to sit with the Customer Relations Officer and see how she dealt with the client's queries and problems. During my work experience I also got a chance to go to a sound studio and see how the voice over for the videos were done. It was a really nice and a different experience for me.
Working atmosphere at Espresso was excellent. Everyone worked as a team and are really cooperative and friendly amongst each other. The dress code is very casual with people working in jeans and t-shirt. The atmosphere is really cool and there is not much pressure. Even the CEO Lewis Bronze is really polite and friendly.
I am really thankful to everyone at Espresso for making these two weeks so enjoyable and a great learning experience. Everyone at Espresso is very welcoming and made me feel comfortable, which made everything so easy and fun.
Work experience at Espresso was a great learning experience. It helped me gain an understanding of the actual working environment. Though I realise that work experience cannot be the same as a real job, as one doesn't have any deadlines to meet or any major responsibilities.
I also realised that if you like what you do then you are able to give in your best. But if you don't like your job then life becomes difficult and you are not able to do it to your best ability. One more thing that I learnt here is the importance of teamwork, and how one could achieve fantastic results by working together as a team.
This experience was so enjoyable because I got a chance to get an insight of the field that I want to get into in my future. Also because everyone made me feel comfortable and welcomed.
Thank you for everything.
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