Skills & Experience

As a student volunteer at The King’s Trust, I inherited responsibility for maintaining a job opportunities tracker used to share employment roles with young people. The existing system relied on a complex Excel spreadsheet that was time-consuming to update, difficult to navigate, and not easily accessible to users without Excel or desktop devices.

My role was to ensure job opportunity data was accurate, up to date, and accessible to young people across different regions, while improving engagement with the information being shared.

After working with the existing spreadsheet for several weeks, I identified usability and accessibility issues that limited its effectiveness. I independently explored the organisation’s internal digital tools and discovered a pin-mapping application used elsewhere within the charity.

I recognised that this tool could visually display job opportunities on an interactive map of England, allowing users to quickly see roles by location. I proposed this solution to my manager, highlighting its benefits: improved accessibility across devices, no requirement for specialist software, clearer presentation of information, and a more engaging user experience.

Following approval, I helped implement the new process, transitioning job opportunity data from the spreadsheet to the interactive map and establishing it as the primary method for advertising roles to young people.

The new system significantly improved the accessibility and accuracy of job opportunity information. It reduced manual effort in maintaining data, made roles easier for young people to explore, and increased engagement through a more intuitive and visually appealing format. The approach was adopted as the standard method for sharing advertised roles going forward.

Skills Demonstrated

Digital Problem-Solving – Leveraged existing organisational tools in a creative way to meet user needs.
Initiative & Ownership – Proactively explored user-centred solutions beyond assigned tasks and proposed improvements independently.
Stakeholder Communication – Clearly articulated the value of a new approach to a manager and supported its adoption.
Data Organisation & Accuracy – Ensured job opportunity information was structured, reliable, and easy to update.

On another occasion, I supported the administration of Development Awards, applications submitted by mentors on behalf of young people to fund essential items that supported employability, such as work-appropriate clothing, travel passes, and equipment.

The existing application process was inefficient and unclear. Mentors were not explicitly informed about which items were eligible for funding, and certain applications (such as travel passes) frequently lacked required documentation, including photo ID. This resulted in avoidable back-and-forth communication, delayed approvals, and increased administrative workload.

Although my primary responsibility was to assist with form completion and processing, I aimed to identify ways to reduce friction in the application process, improve data quality at the point of submission, and support faster, smoother approvals for young people.

While working through applications, I identified recurring issues that caused delays: ineligible requests, missing documentation, and a lack of guidance for mentors supporting young people.

I proactively developed a set of practical process improvements, including:

Clear guidance outlining which types of items could and could not be funded
Explicit instructions on when a photo ID was required for travel passes
Directions on how young people could obtain an acceptable photo ID, where possible
Recommendations to standardise application information to reduce incomplete submissions

I shared these suggestions with my manager, framing them as low-effort administrative changes that would reduce rework and improve consistency across applications.

The proposed improvements clarified expectations for mentors, reduced avoidable application errors, and improved the quality of information submitted at the first point of review. This helped streamline internal processing, minimise follow-up communication, and contributed to faster, more predictable approval timelines for Development Awards.

Skills Demonstrated

Operational Problem-Solving – Identified root causes of delays and addressed them through practical, scalable, structured improvements to reduce inefficiencies .
Stakeholder Empathy – Balanced the needs of finance staff, mentors, and young people when designing improvements.
Clear Written Communication – Translated informal knowledge into explicit guidance that others could easily follow.

While working with the Marketing team at The King’s Trust, I supported improvements to a bi-weekly newsletter used to communicate programme offerings and development opportunities to external partners such as Job Centres and employment support organisations.

The newsletter itself was visually strong and well-structured; however, distribution posed ongoing challenges. Many partner organisations had strict email size limits, meaning the graphic-heavy newsletter could not be sent as a downloadable attachment and instead had to be shared via links.

I was asked to explore ways to improve the clarity and depth of information provided about each programme without increasing the size of the newsletter or disrupting its existing structure.

To address this constraint, I designed a solution that embedded text-based hyperlinks within each programme section of the newsletter. These links directed readers to dedicated pages containing more detailed information about specific programmes, allowing the core newsletter to remain lightweight while offering deeper context where needed.

I tested the solution within the design environment and presented it to my manager, who approved the approach. The updated newsletter was then distributed to partners using the usual process.

Shortly after distribution, several partners reported that the embedded links were not accessible. I identified that the newsletter had been created using a paid version of design software, and external viewers were encountering a paywall when attempting to access linked content.

I immediately flagged the issue, removed the embedded links, and redistributed the standard version of the newsletter to avoid further disruption.

Although the solution could not be implemented as intended, the issue was identified early and resolved quickly, preventing wider impact. The experience provided valuable insight into the importance of testing content from an external user perspective and validating tools across different access levels before rollout.

Skills Demonstrated

Creative Problem-Solving Under Constraints – Designed an innovative solution to increase informational depth without increasing file size.
Digital Experimentation – Confidently explored design software capabilities to improve content delivery.
User & Access Awareness – Gained practical insight into permission, licensing, and external user limitations.
Quality Assurance Mindset – Developed a stronger approach to testing outputs across different viewing contexts.
Accountability & Responsiveness – Took ownership of an issue, acted quickly, and prevented further impact.
Reflective Practice – Demonstrated the ability to extract learning from challenges and apply it to future work.

Dylan Wilson Aspiring Data Apprentice

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