My work experience at FoES…

By Doug Sinclair, a student at Glasgow Academy who did his work experience placement at Friends of the Earth Scotland in June 2011…

At school, I was told my work experience would give me a taster of what working life was like. My friends will have spent the last week with financial institutions and businesses,

for example, but I was lucky enough to be able to do my work experience somewhere much more interesting and worthwhile – at Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Even though it was just my first day viagra pills and I had only just been introduced to the staff, I attended both a transport campaign-planning meeting with FoES Chief Executive, Stan Blackley, and a Board meeting of Transform Scotland – an organisation that campaigns for better transport policies and practice.

However, this was just a taster of what was in store for the rest of my time at FoES. Stan was keen to ensure that, by the end of my stay, I understood the important work FoES delivers throughout Scotland. In order to help me do so, he took me to lunch with the head of policy and research from one of Scotland’s political parties, and to the Annual General Meeting of the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland coalition.

At that meeting, I was introduced to the concept of co-operation between disparate campaigning and voluntary organisations in order to achieve the biggest impact for a joint campaign. This idea was stressed again that evening when we attended a reception at the Scottish Parliament hosted by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.

From my experience, I can tell that FoES is not just working to improve Scotland, but has a worldwide vision as part of an international network of campaigning organisations. This has been shown through the organisation’s work with the Free West Papua Campaign (for which I did a little work) and by its aim of achieving environmental justice – an equal share of the planet’s resources for everyone.

Despite not learning about these ambitions in a classroom, but instead through ‘real work’ and chatting with members of staff, I understand FoES’s vision and its commitment to its campaigns, and I leave my work experience feeling that I’ve helped and learned from a really worthwhile organisation.