Caitlin Airey

My Graduate Story

My name is Caitlin Airey and and I graduated from the University of Birmingham with an BA in Geography.

I currently work as a Public Health Children and Young People Project Officer at Wokingham Borough Council.

A Day in my Life

Broadly, my responsibility is to work with colleagues and partner organisations to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people in the community.

Day to day, this can involve utilising data to understand health needs of the population, researching and planning how to best support young people's health needs locally (e.g. vaping, sexual health support etc.), designing and delivering health and wellbeing messaging to children in schools, commissioning services to support improving health outcomes, and delivering health and wellbeing projects in the community (e.g. providing free oral health supplies to 0-5s).

My Journey

Based on the modules I enjoyed most during my degree, I knew I wanted to work in a community-based role after graduating, and ideally in a role based around young people or education. During my final year at Birmingham, I applied to a number of graduate schemes, and was successful getting a place on Impact: the Local Government Graduate Scheme which gave me the chance to undertake different placements within the council and work towards a qualification in leadership and management. I really enjoyed my placement in the Public Health team during my graduate scheme which led me to applying to my current role.

My Birmingham Experience

Getting to study such a wide range of modules in my Geography degree allowed me to develop a range of skills that have been beneficial to working in public health, such as data analysis, qualitative and quantitative research methods, report writing and presenting.

I really enjoyed the mixture of lectures, seminars and tutorials, and found that the combination of learning styles supported me to articulate my opinions well and have meaningful discussions. Many of my assignments were based around real world applications of geographical knowledge, such as writing government style reports, which has been incredibly relevant for the reports I write in my job now

I also had the fantastic opportunity to undertake a placement in a local secondary school during my final year which gave me valuable experience of working with children and young people.

My favourite thing about studying Geography was the variety that the course offered. I don't think there's many courses where you could be in a lecture about international relations in the Middle East in the morning, and discussing the applications of video games in the afternoon. I also loved the freedom to choose your own topics for assignments, some of my favourite essays I wrote explored topics such as: sexism and urban planning, beauty standards in the Philippines, and the regulation of teenagers' bodies in the school environments.

The amount of independent study also worked really well for me as I could manage my time myself, allowing me to get stuck in with all aspects of university life, such as societies, volunteering and part-time jobs. I was an active member of the Music Society and Guild Drama, building my confidence and leadership skills through performing, musical directing, and being on committee.

Birmingham's Impact

I found the regular emails from the Careers Network and careers fairs on campus really helpful for knowing what internship and graduate opportunities were out there, and I applied for a few positions which I found through the network. I also utilised the CV support available through the Careers Network.

My Achievements

My biggest achievement would have to be getting a first on my dissertation, which explored the role that community theatre plays in mitigating social exclusion. This is a topic which I am incredibly passionate about, and I was really proud of my research design and process, which involved interviewing 14 community theatre companies. I learnt so much during the process of doing my own research, so it was incredibly rewarding to see my efforts recognised in my final grade.

Advice for Students

I would say mainly to get stuck in and make the most of every opportunity that comes your way: part time jobs, societies and volunteering roles can all provide great experiences to talk about in graduate job applications.