Meet Alice – Our new Operations Coordinator at St Giles UK Juniors

Alice may be a familiar face to former St Giles UK Juniors students, as she has been an Activities Manager for us for 2 summers. Now she’s back working in the St Giles UK Juniors office in Brighton, in a new role as Operations Coordinator. We wanted to find out more about her new role, what makes her keep coming back to St Giles Juniors and what it’s like to work at a busy residential summer centre.

What does your new role, Operations Coordinator, involve?

I will be assisting with bookings, enquiries, social programme preparation, coming up with new activity ideas, arranging excursions and co-ordinating airport transfers in the summer.

Tell us a bit about your background?

I have an MA in Mozambican Literature and can speak fluent Spanish and Portuguese. I’ve also lived, worked and travelled in Argentina, Brazil and Portugal.

What’s your favourite thing about working on a residential course?

I love that everybody gets to know each other really well and everybody gets involved. I like the welfare side of things too, it’s great to get to know the students as a whole. I also loved organising a flash mob in Southampton!

What are your favourite activities?

I quite like t-shirt making for a nice calm activity but “egg protector” (a really messy, fun team game using eggs) is great for the comedy value.

Why have you returned to St Giles Juniors?

It works quite well with everything I’ve been doing; it complements my past experience and I am learning a lot of new transferable skills. I have always been impressed with St Giles and how the company operates so it’s great to be part of the team!

What are your top tips for any new recruits this summer?

One of the things that I’m adamant about is splitting larger groups up as much as possible. Especially when walking in the city, walking in very big groups is impossible. Also, don’t be afraid to speak up if you’ve got a particular specialism and want to run an activity which is a bit different. Adding your additional skills to the programme makes our courses all the more special! I think experienced staff should share their previous experience with less experienced staff, give them an idea of how the excursions work and any tips that they may have. It’s important for people to pass on their knowledge and talk about what your favourite things have been in the past!

Tell us something that you’ve learnt with us in your first few months?

I’ve learned the importance of being really polite and friendly with everyone we come into contact with us such as parents and agents but also people like coach companies and ticket providers for the social programme. We make all our emails and phone calls really personal and always try and build a relationship with people. It also helps parents to feel more comfortable about sending their children to us. 

Find out more about our Junior Summers Centres in the UK.