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Clement Cheung undertook a 6-week summer internship at Defra as part of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø's Public Policy Global Citizenship programme.

In the summer of 2019, I undertook a two month internship at Camden Council. At the time, I was a Masters student studying Health, Wellbeing and Sustainable Buildings at the Bartlett centre at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø. My background was more in the technical side so I had never planned to apply for jobs in sectors outside construction or sustainability before I enrolled to the Global Citizenship Programme. The ÌýPower to the Planet Strand was highly related to my course and it managed to link my existing knowledge and studies into social policy setting, which boosted my employability and opened new insights. I was very lucky to be selected for an internship at Camden Council following the programme.

Camden Council is a local authority which is responsible for the daily operation of local governement borough. It provides social support to those in the community in need and attempts to create a healthy and liveable environment for their residents. My internship at the Council allowed me to experience what was like in working in the UK public sector, giving me opportunities to be in contact with local citizens and understand their needs, and allowed me to learn from a great team who were dedicated to fostering wellbeing among the community through the provision of housing, healthcare, educational and many other community services.

I interned in the Strategy and Change Team of the Council. The team was responsible for researching the implications of local and national policy for the Council and providing professional advice to inform policy-making at a local level. I was given the opportunity to participate in collecting evidence on how different local authority funding allocation models would affect the services delivery of councils in order to develop recommendations on how local government should be funded for the betterment of councils’ operations. This was a great training for me. It boosted my skills in reviewing and consolidating open-source data and in using data to inform policy recommendations. Through the internship, I learnt more about the finance and operation of local authorities, and got a general picture of the state of public administration system in the UK. I was also given opportunities to present my findings to senior members of the council and get feedback from them. It improved my confidence in giving presentations, and the feedback allowed me to improve my work and develop. Most importantly I built friendship with colleagues at the council. Everyone was so friendly! They taught and guided me throughout my internship and I have retained that network in the time following the placement.

After my two-month internship, I went back to Hong Kong, where I am from, and I have studying for a PhD. The internship has given me insights into how to conduct research which will be useful in further study. I now feel I have a sense of what communities really want, and I am confident in knowing that my research is benefiting those it is meant to serve.

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