As digital and transformation possibilities emerge, businesses and nations must adapt fast, and the future of the next generation of talent is more valuable than ever. However, skills shortages must be addressed and capability be built for the future.
The CCL Internship Programme is an opportunity to help bridge these gaps and foster a diverse talent pipeline for the future, while drawing on the opportunities that come with fresh thinking and ideas. Here’s a rundown of how it went.
This summer, six interns from diverse technology backgrounds were welcomed into CCL to learn from and work with our CCL and Leaven teams. Josh Hobbs, Innovation Ventures Lead at CCL, summarises its value:
“Providing an opportunity for students and graduates to work in a real-world organisation helps them realise their areas of passion and interest. It enables us as an organisation to showcase our capability and provides a fantastic pool of talented people we can begin to bring into our organisation…
To continue the growth in our capability and meeting our clients’ needs moving forward, it also provides the opportunity for others within our organisation to gain valuable leadership skills.”
Josh Hobbs, Innovation Ventures Lead, CCL and Leaven
Challenge accepted: Future-ready skills
As technology industries – and cloud disciplines, especially – face a growing skills shortage, internships are valuable ways to accelerate learning and develop future-focused talent.
After a brief induction process, the six interns quickly got involved with initiatives that gave them important exposure to the technology industry and how it works.
“I thought I knew what working in a project team was like from uni, but the people we worked with, and the projects that we’ve had a hand in developing, have by far changed any expectations I had.”
Dan Chapman, CCL Intern
An element of human connection can make a real difference for students on their learning journeys. Senior CCL staff members volunteered to be mentors to the interns. They brought opportunities to connect with leaders, space for professional development, and checklists outlining expectations – essential tools that engage those new to the workforce. Each intern had their own CCL Coach who they met with weekly, sharing stories about career journeys and providing perspectives on roles.
From day dot – On-the-job internship experiences
When they first met and got together in a breakout room, the CCL interns developed a group goal of what they wanted to achieve overall:
“To learn through real-world experience, while contributing to the company as a whole”.
The CCL Internship Programme saw the interns working across a rotation between four different core company areas: Innovation Ventures, Service Desk, Engineering and Security.
“Being able to delve into the different sectors of CCL has been eye-opening and taught me that, no matter what background you have, a career in tech is possible.”
Priscilla Foale, CCL Intern
The interns were assigned to the Innovation Ventures team for the first six weeks of the programme. The interns delivered a range of projects, covering computer vision, front end web portal design, and coding, while also visiting customer sites to better understand how their work might be applied.
The team spent the following three weeks over the Christmas holiday period in the Service Desk team, shadowing staff initially and then progressing to answering calls and resolving client issues. The interns showed they could develop their interpersonal skills and understand the importance of IT management platforms and processes.
The next three weeks of the programme were spent in Security. They built cloud-based services and Exchange servers and learnt about firewalls.
The final four weeks saw the interns in the Engineering team, creating and troubleshooting their virtual networks and servers.
During this part of the programme, the interns had the opportunities to expand their knowledge through several training initiatives, including AWS Immersion Days; Microsoft training sessions; Augmented Reality, Project Management and Agile Framework sessions; and ongoing access to a technology skills development platform.
By working with the internal CCL and Leaven teams and observing their day-to-day practices, the group gained insight into the complexity of IT projects and the importance of having a supportive team around them.
