Relate

Can you start by introducing yourself and explaining your current role?  

Hello, my name is Tina, and I am the CEO of Relate Bradford & Leeds, a counselling charity, where I have worked since 2018. My role consists of leadership and responsibility of day-to-day operations within the charity. I am blessed to work alongside a terrific team and a great Board of Trustees and colleagues across Bradford and Leeds. 

Hi, my name is Sofia, and I am a recent Human Resources graduate from the University of Bradford. I started my journey with Relate, through a ‘Summer Experience,’ after which I collaborated with them to produce research for my Final Year Project during the pandemic. I now work for Relate Bradford & Leeds as their Human Resources, Governance & Finance Administrator. 

Why do you choose to work with the University of Bradford and how have you found working with us? 

The University of Bradford is local to us and is an integral and important part of the community in which we serve. As a small yet ambitious charity, having support from a university of such standing is key for us. They have provided us with opportunities that we would not have had without their support.  

We find the University to be open, inclusive, responsive, understanding of what we need, and in an absolute willingness to support us.    

We support the thinking in wanting to retain talent in Bradford, to work, live, play, volunteer, and to ‘belong in Bradford’, is important to us all. 

What benefit/value do our graduates bring to the workplace/ to your organization?  

As we know, Bradford is the youngest city in Europe, where we have 29% of people aged under 20 and almost 25% under the age of 16. We hold an importance for our growth and future sustainability within such a young and diverse place, which we reflect by supporting a younger more diverse workforce into the world of work as well as sharing and challenging ideas. 

Throughout our relationship with the University of Bradford, we have had such a high calibre of students that bring those fresh new ideas, perspectives, and challenge.  

As a diverse and forward-thinking charity, we love having the opportunity to enrich and mentor our upcoming citizens of Bradford and in all that we can learn from them too, from their expertise and experience and in putting their academic theory into practice.  

So, for us, we greatly value and benefit from the students that come to Relate Bradford & Leeds, and we hope they benefit greatly too. 

What do you want to see on a job application? 

It’s important to see a well put together application, which is clearly thought through, and says why a student wants to come and work with us in particular – why Relate Bradford & Leeds…why a charity? We like to see examples of volunteering and clubs, extra-curricular activities, work experience, employment, summer experience programmes, and student rep roles, as areas of interest.  

It helps to see relatability – charity minded or passionate about their community and the third sector. What’s important is to get the feeling of being proactive, the ability to work innovatively and autonomously if needed. Creativity, innovation ability to work autonomously are important elements. 

What needs to shine through, is a warmth, passion, creativity, interest, commitment, and sound knowledge in subject areas and for Bradford. We like to see that a student has done their homework on us, that they can relate to our values, principles, and behaviours.  

Tell us how our graduates can progress in your organization?/What type of job opportunities do you have?  

We had a student, Sofia, who came to us through the summer experience programme and stayed on to volunteer. During this time, Sofia collaborated to produce research with us for her dissertation.  

We are delighted to share that Sofia did incredibly well with us so we took the opportunity to identify a gap within the organization and offer her a position at Relate Bradford & Leeds. Sofia has responsibility for human resources and governance and has lately grown into an additional role in the finance department.  

We have had other students who have remained as volunteers with us. One student supported further website developments and social media. Another student (from the University of Bradford) came to us as a volunteer and joined the office team. She is now hoping to begin further clinical training.  

Why should a young individual/graduate come and work with you?  

We are local and we make a difference, we embrace and welcome difference, we reflect diversity…we are creative, forward thinking, and passionate about all that we do in serving our community.

We work with people of all ages and counselling for young people is a key and growing part of what we do and who we are.

We also have opportunities for volunteering, work experience and placements.

Providing support for mental health is key at any age and at any time. We want young people who come to us to be our ambassadors, our role models, and to stay with us to continue their working careers in mental health locally and tell others what we do and how we can help to support them. 

We also need the voice of our younger citizens to help to shape what we do, to help share who we are, to help to co-create our services, to be innovative and creative, so that we can provide cutting edge counselling services, to help us be a voice, to reflect and represent young people in our communities – even more so now, with the recent announcement of Bradford being named the City of Culture 2025! A proud day for us all. 

We can offer a great opportunity for someone to come and see what it feels like to work in the charity sector. We can offer a great induction, training, mentoring, real hands-on experience and a chance to help to make real change in our charity, enabling us to grow and for us to learn from you too.

We are a fun place to work! 

What advice would you give to our/ current students/graduates looking for jobs? 

Be proactive and get in touch with the Careers Service/Handshake – they will help you!

In terms of a job, go for something that you have a passion and enthusiasm for.