Daniel Costello

I decided to apply for the Business and Skills internship as it was local to me and provided a chance to explore potential careers paths. A big draw was the fact that I would be able to work hands-on with the authority in their work on improving Tees Valley.  

Growing up here all my life, it is clear there is a narrative of decline, and I was keen to see what was being done to change this. Over the course of the internship, we have had two main projects.  

Our first project was ‘What does good key account management look like.’ Key account management is how the business team organises its relationship with companies. This project allowed us to do a deep dive on the team’s processes, looking into areas such as how new applications are evaluated, who they are assigned to (and why they were assigned to them), and what processes are in place. 

This was a really fun project as the directory had recently been restructured meaning that this topic was relevant to the development of the authority. Our second project focused on the Teesworks Skill Academy, based on the land of the old steelworks in Redcar – it was eye opening seeing how the area is being redeveloped. For the project, we had to develop a program to maximise the academy as a hub for connecting with schools, business, and job seekers.  

Over the course of the two projects, we met well over 60 people, participated in site visits and attended office openings. The authority went above and beyond to cater to our work with everyone making time to meet us and ensuring we were involved. Coming from a university which doesn’t do group projects, working as a pair and as a group of eight in an open office environment was really enjoyable.  

When I started the internship, I was struggling to plan what jobs I wanted to go into. Over the course of the last three weeks, after being exposed to dozens of positions in a variety of different job roles, I now feel much more knowledgeable of what types of jobs are out there and am more confident in navigating job hunting in the future.