Harry, Work Experience at Loxleys

Last year Creative and Digital Media student, Harry, undertook a work experience placement with Loxleys as a Marketing Intern.

Loxleys is a specialist greeting card printer that produces over 100 million greeting cards a year. The company employs a diverse team of 80 staff in their Sheffield-based factory, with roles including print engineering, business management, HR, customer service and marketing.

The placement lasted 6 months and each week Harry would spend the equivalent of one day with the company assisting in their marketing department. Harry was able to use his existing skills in idea generation, storyboarding and film making to help in building creative assets for Loxleys marketing team. He used his time with the company, not only to support them, but to further develop a strong portfolio for university applications and future employment and even had one of his photographs featured in a greeting card industry magazine!

Talking about his experience at Loxleys, Harry said: “At Loxleys, I carried out the role of Marketing intern, in the role I used my skills in photography, videography and graphic design to share updates with Loxleys new and existing customers. I assisted Heather, the Marketing Coordinator, in scheduling content for their social media platforms, Loxleys’ website and email newsletters, with the aim of gaining engagement and attention, which will hopefully translate into sales.”

Work placements are a fantastic way for students to gain not only experience in the workplace but also refine their existing skills and learn new ones, highlighting the skills he had learnt, Harry said: “The most notable skill improvement since I started my placement at Loxleys is in my photography. Compared to my first photos at Loxleys, by the end I was able to position greetings cards and frame images in such a way that they are visually appealing. After being at Loxleys for a few months I was able to gain a deep understanding into how social media can be used to effectively market a brand and establish/ represent a brand identity.”

He continued: “Within Loxleys, I would have to say that my proudest project is the interview blog and Instagram post we created in collaboration with Dialectable. Creating this post required understanding of brand identity to be able to simultaneously represent the two brands involved (Loxleys and Dialectable) using their brand colours.”

Once Harry has completed his studies at UTC he intends to go on to university to pursue a BA in Film and Television Production, with ambitions to potentially go on to do a MA in Documentary Production.

Summing up his experience overall, Harry said: “My work placement at Loxleys has already significantly increased the skills I will need for the future, they have given me access to this wealth of information on social media strategy and plenty of opportunities to put my skills into practice. The media I have produced for Loxleys has been added to both my digital and physical portfolios, which I will be using in future applications.”

Commenting on Harry’s placement and experience, Tony Lorriman, Managing Director at Loxleys, said: “Harry was a real credit to UTC throughout his time at Loxleys, very engaged and a polite young man, it was a pleasure to have him here.”