During the October Through the Looking Glass work experience, we visited Lloyds of London, Marsh and Willis, where I was first introduced to the world of insurance and instantly knew that this was the path I wanted to take. Having had a brief overview of insurance while we were there, encouraged me to look further into it as I was anxious to know more.

I registered with a charity, The brokerage Citylink, which aims to provide young people with opportunities to obtain employment in big city firms. An opportunity for an 8 week internship with Canopius, an insurance subsidiary of Lloyds of London, came up which I applied to. Only three students were shortlisted for an interview and having shown that I completed work experience on the programme on my CV was really helpful because it gave me the advantage that the other two interviewees didn’t have, as I was able to say that I had already visited Lloyds of London and already knew a bit about them. I was successful out of the three students and gained a place on the internship, which I really really enjoyed and hope to go back and work there one day. I am certain that part of my success with Canopius was because of my participation on the Through the Looking Glass programme, because if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have known anything about insurance or Lloyds of London and wouldn’t have researched further into it.

The programme gave me the confidence to take charge of my future and explore the different paths and opportunities out there. It also made me certain that I wanted to study Economics at university, which I will be doing from September 2013 at Queen Mary University.