My Last Day at the PTA.

Wow, I can't believe how fast the last four weeks have gone. Today's my last day with the PTA and I'm sad to be leaving the great girls and guy in Corp Comms.

During my time here I've worked on a wide range of projects, from article writing for internal communications to policy writing to organising a mini event. I learnt so much about internal communications and how important they are to an organisation, especially one the size of the PTA (who employ over 1400 people!).

One of the best things I got to do was attend some community workshops organised by the PTA.

One of the programs I went to was the Re:Cycle2 bike project. Ten primary school students aged seven to 13 from Midland are meeting once a week at the Police and Citizens Youth Club to participate in workshops teaching them how to rebuild bicycles. Hundreds of bikes are abandoned at train stations and are stored by the PTA. The children will work on rebuilding and restoring two bikes each for eight weeks and at the end of the program will give one to charity and get to keep the other. It was fantastic to see how happy these kids were working on their bikes.

I also went along to the first 2011 Urban Art workshop. This is the fourth year this project has been run by the PTA as part of their efforts to reduce graffiti. A bunch of kids attend lessons hosted by a professional urban artist and will later develop murals and graffiti art screens.

I don't think people realise these kind of workshops are organised and funded by the PTA. The PTA really try to give back to the community and engage youth in activities.

So today I came in with cupcakes to share and we had a little final day morning tea. I thanked them all for having me, I really did learn so much from them. They actually gave me a thank you present (lucky me!) and they really made me feel like I'd been part of the team. I also sent around a thank you email at the end of the day.

I'd encourage anyone looking for a placement to consider the applying for one at the PTA. When I first got the interview I thought it was going to be quite boring, I didn't realise how much the PTA do and my time here certainly wasn't boring! I've learnt so much about public relations both internally and coming out of a government organisation.

Now... just that report to do!