Project Description

Career Ready Internship Success: Fife Council and Career Ready Collaboration

This summer, Fife Council’s Economic Development team joined forces with Career Ready to deliver a transformative internship for young people, providing them with vital hands-on experience and mentoring. One standout example of this partnership’s success is Poppy, a student from Beath High School, who spent four weeks immersed in Fife Council’s Economic Development team. Under the mentorship of Dot Smith, Enterprise and Business Development Manager, Poppy gained invaluable skills that will undoubtedly shape her future career.

Tailored Internship Experience:

Recognising Poppy’s strong interest in social media, especially TikTok, her placement was designed to hone these skills in a real-world setting. She was placed with the Fife Tourism team, where she was tasked with creating promotional content for independent cafés in Dunfermline. This unique opportunity allowed Poppy to blend her social media expertise with practical marketing skills.

Her internship featured a day of site visits to several local cafés, where she filmed and produced engaging content that was shared across Welcome to Fife’s social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The success of this campaign was amplified as local businesses reshared her content, enhancing the online presence of Dunfermline’s café culture.

Poppy’s Impactful Work:

Discover Poppy’s work by visiting:

Businesses Involved:

Poppy collaborated with the following local independent businesses to boost their social media exposure:

  • Marie’s Café
  • Abbot House Gift Shop
  • Prost Coffee in Abbot House
  • Must Be Cracker!
  • Sew Yarn Crafty
  • Café Wynd
  • Little Shop of Heroes
  • Kilt Shop
  • Little Thistle

Activity Highlights:

During her placement, Poppy visited each of these businesses alongside Linn Williamson from the Fife Tourism team. She engaged with the business owners to learn more about their services and products, captured dynamic footage, and created engaging content that significantly enhanced their social media profiles. Her final project—a TikTok video—was shared not only by Welcome to Fife, but also by many of the local businesses, showcasing her impressive content creation and community engagement abilities.

Positive Reception:

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive from both the businesses involved and the social media audience. Poppy’s creativity and initiative were praised, with her video receiving widespread appreciation across multiple platforms. This success also led to additional opportunities—Love Cowdenbeath expressed interest in collaborating with Poppy on a new social media project for Cowdenbeath.

Reflections from Poppy:

“When Dot and I were first paired, it felt like we had known each other for a long time, thanks to Career Ready! I was nervous about starting in a new workplace, but everyone at Fife Council were so welcoming. Working across different teams has really improved my confidence and built-up skills like problem-solving and teamwork. I especially loved working alongside Dot for the four weeks. Now, I’m thrilled about the new opportunity with Love Cowdenbeath, and none of this would have happened without Career Ready. I’d encourage other young people to take the chance if they’re unsure about their future.”

Mentor’s Perspective:

“This was my first time mentoring through the Career Ready Programme, and working with Poppy has been a remarkable experience. I am incredibly proud of how she has developed her confidence, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities—skills she was eager to work on. Poppy approached every task with enthusiasm and built lasting connections that will undoubtedly benefit her in the future. Watching her dedication and growth has been truly inspiring, and I’m excited to see where her journey takes her next.”

Looking to the Future:

As we look ahead, we are preparing for the 2024-2026 Career Ready cohort and are actively recruiting new mentors. We aim to support over 120 young people through this impactful program. If you are interested in becoming a mentor or would like to encourage others to get involved, your support would be greatly appreciated.

If you have any questions or wish to learn more about the Career Ready program, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.