Megan Hague

The main role within this job is instructing climbing sessions. These sessions run with a range of ages and group sizes which therefore means I have to be flexible and adaptable to make the session suitable for the clients. As well as this, the role involves tasks such as reception and cleaning which help with the overall running of the centre.

My company started up in the spring of 2016 during the last year of my degree and I am launching my business via social media to raise my company’s profile. In the future I want to be in a position to take clients outdoors in heir chosen area of interest, helping them to create personal goals, improve their well-being, their confidence, their motivational attitudes, and to discover themselves, or to offer larger scale events where team-building can be the focus.

In this role I am heavily involved in instructing Hi 5 team activities, such as human table football and Sumo wrestling. This role requires professional communication qualities to allow full engagement with clients, a complete understanding of their needs while ensuring their enjoyment in a safe environment.

My position within this club is planning and running socials through the year. Some of the social I have organised are; a Pudding Night, Pub Climbing, both a summer and a Christmas formal and BBQ. This role has given me experience in the organising of events and ensuring that everything is thought through and planned out before it goes ahead: for example, pubs on the Pub Climbing activities were contacted in advance, deals/discounts were agreed and they were able to prepare for the groups to arrive!

As a member of SSAGO I have volunteered at several camps. This includes volunteering at Gilwell 24 helping with the Shelterbox Base, Global Development Village and serving drinks at the Soft Drinks bar. I also volunteered at Gilwell Wintercamp on the backwoods cooking base, assisting young people in cooking bread twists and chocolate fruit on the fire.

The main roles and responsibilities of this job were lifeguarding, cleaning and working on reception. Whilst lifeguarding I had the responsibility to ensure that everyone had an enjoyable and safe swim. My communication skills improved due to working on reception in this role. Here I talked to customers about membership issues, opening times, and any other queries they may have either via physical and telephone communication. I believe that I have gained much experience in understanding customer needs.

As part of a placement for my degree I volunteered, one day a week, at the Thames Valley Branch of the Brain Injury Association. Here I was an extra set of hands around the centre helping the support workers throughout the day. This gained me experience working with Brain Injury Patients helping me to understanding more about how their injuries have impacted their life. I sat in on many different activities used to help rehabilitate the clients, such as Art Therapy and Music Therapy.

This position involved helping out at the Scouting Section for young people aged 14-17. Within this role I helped plan activities and contributed to the leading of the section. Activities included leading many games as fillers in the evening plan and also leading the occasional night. Within this role I opted for a Hill-Walking Training ​weekend in Snowdonia where I learned various outdoor skills and improved on those I already had.

At this very busy pool I worked through many leisure disciplines such as ‘splash sessions’, inflatables, aqua-aerobics and pool parties. These required differing skills to ensure the pool was a safe environment for the users. In this role, I particularly learnt the the importance of communication through using non-verbal methods, like a whistle and hand signals, to pass on information to other lifeguards ​indicating various problems as they arose.

The role assigned to me required lifeguarding and cleaning duties. During my time there I was fortunately enough to be in the right place to perform two rescues. The first was when a girl, who couldn't swim, jumped into the deep end of the swimming pool. The second when a girl had an epileptic fit in the pool. For both of these I performed successful rescues, ensuring they had the appropriate aftercare. These really show the importance of lifeguarding and the responsibility I held.

This roll introduced me to the individuals who made the decisions affecting local Scouting and helped ensure these decisions were suitable for the area from a young person’s point of view. From this perspective I experienced the management of Scouting from a County level and became to understand and appreciate the amount work that was entailed in running the organisation.

My involvement began by running some of the evening sessions for Cubs based on various topics ranging from World Scout Jamboree, to diverse cultures, through to helping them achieve their Swimming badges. Additionally, I helped keep the Cubs entertained between activities by introducing them to various games. This experience increased my leadership skills and communication with this age range.