Digicel and DCU Educational Trust have collaborated for a number of years to provide unique work experience for final year DCU Access students. Through this partnership, Access students have the opportunity to gain meaningful work experience in a global company while also getting the chance to travel.
Adam Swan and Shannon Clancy were selected to take part in the programme this summer. Shannon is currently situated within the Digicel team in St. Lucia, while Adam is located in the Algarve, Portugal working for Lazer Telecoms. Both have taken time out to give us an update on how they are enjoying their placements to date.
“I spent the first week of my Digicel internship in Jamaica as part of my orientation. It was extremely busy with training, but it was amazing and so insightful. While here, we also got a glimpse into the amazing work of the Digicel Foundation in communities throughout Jamaica. This was probably my favourite part of the training week, because it showed me how the company plays a major role in giving back to communities. This is something I will not forget moving forward in my career as I want to work for a company that gives back to society.
After our training week in Jamaica, we all went our separate ways and I landed in St. Lucia in a position within the Marketing team. St. Lucia is like paradise. The island is vibrant and full of culture. I am lucky to be here for carnival, which is a two-week festival full of events. From what I’ve heard carnival is amazing, so I’m really looking forward to the experience.
Currently I am working with the social media manager, who oversees all of Digicel’s 33 markets in the Caribbean. I am learning so much about the different areas within the Marketing sector; from promotions, to launches, and even a little bit of analytics. I think I have even found something I could continue after my time here – a role in the analytical side of marketing.
I’m really enjoying my internship, and I’m learning something new every day. The opportunities I have been given so far are incredible. I’m looking forward to seeing what other new experiences are around the corner.”
“My internship is based in the Algarve, Portugal. The offices are located in a small town called Almancil, about 20 minutes from Faro airport. It takes me about 10 minutes to get to work from where I live in Quarteira which is a beautiful seaside village.
The internship is with Lazer Telecoms, they specialise in providing fibre internet and 200+ international TV channels, which is great for the expatriate community over here. The company is expanding rapidly and has employees from Portugal, England and Ireland. They were all very welcoming and made settling in very easy.
So far, I’ve gotten a vast array of experience between the finance, sales and marketing teams; from selling product to potential customers, to creating brand new marketing ideas and campaigns.
It has been exciting from day one. For my induction week I learned how to sell a contract and how to bill customers. I even got to head out with the technicians and install two homes with fibre internet.
Members of the senior management team sat down with me individually to explain how the business operates. I appreciate the time they are giving me, it really is invaluable to me. Every day is different and offers new challenges, projects and opportunities which I love!
The internship is giving me a well-rounded view of how a sales and marketing team works, how businesses are managed and how strategies are used to increase a customer base and expand into different regions.
I’ve also had time at the weekends to visit different regions in the Algarve such as Lagos and Sagres and I even took a day trip over to Seville last week. There are lots of things to do here and being given a car really helps experience the different sunny towns and attractions.”