Universities Week 2012. Wow, where can I start? I am currently in my placement year at the Department of Health, where my everyday job is to help monitor the budgets of arms-length bodies of the health sector. Finance plays a huge role in any organisation, and I think it’s fair to say that it has certainly been an integral part of the Olympic 2012 games.
Working in an environment where the overall spend is £105 billion, it is needless to say that my placement while at University would equip me to deal with financial oversight of such a huge project like the Olympic games. With the help of the Careers Service, I was able to secure my placement at the DoH and made the networks and friendships that I have today, which I hope will help me achieve and exceed my ambitions in the future.
As a part of my extracurricular activities, I hope to support the Leeds Children’s Charity by running the 10k marathon in May. Then in July 2012 I aim to run another 10k for ‘Jane Tomlinson’ with my colleagues. The ‘Olympic’ spirit is certainly in the air and it seems like everybody is raring to go.
I’m ready to take on the challenge…
Of course even with participating in 10k runs, half marathons and marathons, finance plays a huge role. The amount of time, effort and money going into the organisation and running of these projects is astonishing. I feel that working at the DoH, combined with what I have learnt through my academic studies has given me a clearer picture not only of the finance but the logistical planning and the government Spending Review (SR) process. The DoH actually had to bid for the budgets required to support the Olympics back in 2005/6 as part of the work of the SR 2007 process, it is estimated that up to £24billion has been spent getting the health service ready for the Olympics.
Needless to say, it has always been an ambition for me to play an important role in the finance of organising an event like the Olympics. Imagine being an ‘Olympic accountant’ – at the world’s top sports event much like Charles Feng, who is a huge inspiration to me (he was an Olympic Accountant in the 2008 Beijing Olympics). Without coming into a working and academic environment at Bradford, I would not have had this much drive to achieve higher. Being a student at the University has opened up many windows of opportunity for me to enhance my skills, which will hopefully enable me to achieve as much as Charles Feng has.
So you never know, now that I’m a career woman and in the midst of my studies, I’m almost ready for the challenge of being the next biggest ‘Olympic accountant’. Watch this space!
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