Hello! My name is Ellie, and I studied BSocSc Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester from September 2022 to July 2025.

My current role and how I got here

Since graduating last year, I have been working in the charity sector as a Project Worker at Manchester Community Central, Manchester’s local infrastructure VCSE support organisation. In my role, I work across the Policy and Influence Team, supporting a range of projects that aim to raise the voices and share the perspectives of community groups across Manchester with key decision-makers, such as Manchester City Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Another key part of my role involves supporting the Greater Manchester Older People’s Network (GMOPN). This is much more community-focused, working directly with older people across the city region who want to influence changes to areas such as healthcare, housing, and transport. I help facilitate productive conversations between local communities and organisations such as the NHS/ICB, TfGM, and the GMCA. One recent success I was involved in through GMOPN was the lifting of time restrictions on the Older Person’s and Disabled Person’s concessionary bus pass. Working alongside Andy Burnham and the Bee Network, this change now allows passengers to use their passes before 9:30am – a huge achievement for the older people involved in the network and a real example of community voices creating meaningful change.

My experience at Manchester and how my degree helped me

I think studying Social Anthropology directly influenced my path into the charity sector because anthropology is ultimately about understanding people on a human level and questioning assumptions rather than taking things for granted. One of the things I enjoy most about my role is the variety it offers. Working for a local infrastructure organisation gives you insight into both the voluntary sector and the public bodies that provide support and funding for it. Being able to act as a bridge between those spaces has been incredibly valuable at the start of my career and has allowed me to learn so much in a short space of time.

It is also important to mention how opportunities at the University of Manchester directly led to me securing this role. In the summer of 2024, I completed an internship with Manchester Community Central through the Careers Service’s Student Experience Internship (SEI) Programme. These internships were open to penultimate-year undergraduate students from any discipline and, although there was still a competitive application and interview process, they were exclusively available to UoM students and fully funded by the University.

As someone interested in working in the charity sector, I knew opportunities like this were incredibly rare, especially paid internships within local charities, so I was determined to secure one of the roles available. I was successful in gaining a position at Manchester Community Central and, after eight weeks as an intern, I was fortunate to have my placement extended for a further six weeks, this time funded directly by the organisation itself. Because the internship was such a positive and mutually beneficial experience, I stayed in touch with the team throughout my final year and was later offered a full-time role after graduation.

Building on my current role and the experience I have gained so far, I was recently successful in applying for a Graduate Scheme at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority as a Graduate Planner. In September will begin a two-year programme working with Transport for Greater Manchester. As part of this programme I’m looking forward to returning to the University of Manchester in September to study Urban Planning, fully funded by the Combined Authority.

Advice for future students

One piece of advice I would give to current students and offer holders is to make the most of the opportunities available simply by being a University of Manchester student. Some opportunities are not always heavily advertised, and you sometimes have to actively search for them, but they can genuinely shape your future career path. During my time at university, I also took part in the Global Graduates Programme, which involved a fully funded trip abroad to meet University alumni, alongside opportunities through the Students’ Union, volunteering programmes, societies, and careers initiatives such as the SEI internships and Behind Manchester’s Doors Programme. The Volunteer Hub at UoM was another great resource, and there are so many more opportunities beyond these. Looking back, these experiences played a huge role in developing my confidence, skills, and career direction. Speaking to friends who went elsewhere to uni, I realise now it’s so rare for a university to have so many opportunities available to its students – we’re all paying the same fees to go to uni and the benefits of all of these programmes and experiences are included within that, so definitely make the most of this!

Originally, planning and development was not something I immediately associated with Social Anthropology. However, I now recognise how important understanding local communities and engaging people through co-production is within local government and planning. At its core, anthropology is about understanding people from their own perspectives and without prescribed bias, and I believe those values are incredibly important in shaping inclusive and effective public services and places.

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