New country, new challenge, new skills – that was my mindset when I started my Erasmus+ traineeship in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After four weeks with Trainer Christine Watson at Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing, I can say this experience pushed me out of my comfort zone and taught me far more than I expected about marketing, technology and life in another country.
As an ITIS (information technology) student from Pisa with a strong interest in digital platforms, social media and content creation, I was excited to combine my technical background with hands-on marketing experience. Here is what I got up to during my time in Belfast.
Getting Started
My first week began with an introduction meeting with Christine in a café in Hillsborough, where she explained how the traineeship would work and handed me the DJI camera so I could start practising filming straight away. After treating me to lunch, Christine headed home to get ready to deliver a marketing webinar, and I went on to Lisburn Road Library, where I took photos of this online training session for the UK Government funded Go Succeed business support programme.
The following day I travelled to Lagan Valley Island in Lisburn, where Christine delivered an in person course for Lisburn and Castlereagh borough council Labour Market Partnership – it was called WorldHost Supervising Customer Service. I helped set up the room beforehand and then spent the session taking photos and filming the workshop delivery on both iphone and using the DJI camera.
The day after that I did a trial of working from home, where Christine had me practising reel making on Canva. I helped draft some reel posts that were published to support this event. Then, on the Sunday of my first week, she brought me along to film the stalls and activities at the Lough Neagh Artisans’ Market in Toome – a really nice way to end the week. As I had worked on the Sunday, I enjoyed a day of during the week – they call this working practice time in lieu.
I spent Wednesday and Thursday working for Christine from various libraries around Belfast, where I was introduced to working on websites and AI tools. I carried out a website audit, used SEOPTIMER, made edits to the TrainingMatchmaker.com website, and did some research into AI.
On Friday, I took part in the Belfast music tour organised as part of the Belfast Learning Festival – a great way to explore the city while learning at the same time. Music is one of my biggest passions.
Welcoming New Trainees
The following Monday, Jonas, a fellow Erasmus trainee from Austria, arrived, and we went to the office together for the first time. I was tasked to focus on his induction, explaining everything Christine had shown me on my own first day.
The next day, Jonas and I joined Christine for another one of her training workshops, this time in Mallusk Enterprise Park, she covered the topic of AI in Marketing, utilising slides that I had helped her put together the previous week. We took photos and videos throughout to share with the funder – Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council Economic Development team. This content featured on the Go Succeed NI social media channel post event. Afterwards, Jonas and I attended a Today at Apple course in the Apple store in Belfast city centre on video content (the day after, we worked in the office and attended another free Apple course, this time on photography). This week I worked remotely once again, I enjoy working from home and I focused mainly on updating the TrainingMatchmaker.com website, adding valuable new content signposts such as links to additional courses, learning opportunities.
The week after, Marilen, a new Erasmus trainee from Germany, arrived, and Jonas and I carried out her induction together. Christine also asked me to start putting together a document that, with ongoing improvements, would eventually become the company’s official induction guide for future trainees.
The training that we attended this week focused on Canva, over 100 delegates were booked to attend, it was delivered online. I already knew a lot of the functionality in Canva from my first few weeks on placement with Christine in Belfast but I did learn something new too – specifically the Canva bulk create feature and, on request, I added additional bonus slides to the Canva slidedeck to help signpost trainees post event.
With Marilen, we mostly worked from the office, apart from Thursday, when we travelled to Carrickfergus Enterprise. – a valued client of my workplace host – Trainer Christine for an ice cream from the Whippy Wagon. This was part of a Summer social networking event for the tenants of this local enterprise agency. Whilst there, we also visited Carrickgergus Castle, walked along the harbour, explored the museum and Hazelbank King’s Coronation Garden on the return trip back to Belfast.
Final Week
For the last week of my placement, Monday and Tuesday were both spent in the office, when Katia a new Erasmus trainee from Austria arrived. On Monday, I focused on capturing content during one of Trainer Christine’s webinars, this time she delivered the WorldHost principles of customer service workshop to 15 delegates from all across the UK. I took photos and notes to use for social media afterwards.
Publishing the various pieces of content I had created over the previous weeks across the different platforms kept me busy on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Jonas, Marilen, Katia and I travelled to Newcastle, County Down – easily one of the highlights of the entire month. Our first stop was Murlough Nature reserve and we walked along a coastal boardwalk that led down to the beach, and we travelled the whole stretch for about an hour and a half until we reached the town centre, where we met Christine at the local library to do a bit of work. Afterwards, we went on the Ferris wheel, which had brilliant views over the bay. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at Bloody Bridge, before heading up into the Mourne Mountains to explore. We visited Tollymore Forest Park, a paid attraction where some of the Game of Thrones scenes were filmed – a really peaceful and beautiful way to spend the afternoon before heading home. We finished the day at the Peace Maze at Castlewellan Forest Park where we got a little bit lost in the maze but captured some great content for social media.
On my final day on placement I got to attend the Lisburn Chamber of Commerce net-walking business networking event at Hillsborough Castle, enjoyed a picnic team lunch at the Rose Week event by Belfast city council and I met one of the digital marketing team of the council – she too have a DJI pocket Osmo for content creation, she also showed us the drone she uses for work and this final learning log blog was published in Lisburn road library.
Looking back, the range of skills I picked up over the four weeks was broader than I had expected when I first arrived.
Canva was one of the tools I used most throughout the traineeship.
Starting out with only a basic knowledge of Canva, I went on to complete three certificates through Canva Design School, covering areas like social media design, content creation and marketing. Working with brand kits, templates and the bulk create feature helped me produce content much more efficiently, and I genuinely feel confident using it now in a professional context.
WordPress was also completely new to me, but by the end of the traineeship I had learned how to edit and update website pages, add new content, write descriptions and manage content – skills that tied in well with my background as an IT student. I also had insight into search engine marketing and tools such as Yoast.
One of the more unexpected things I learned about was how businesses use Reddit. I had always thought of it as just a social platform, but I discovered how companies can use subreddits for audience research, community engagement and brand visibility. I also learned how boosting posts can reach a wider audience beyond just organic followers – something that applies across platforms and completely changed the way I think about content distribution.
Finally, I developed a much deeper understanding of AI and how to use it properly as a working tool – but more on that below.
AI, Tools and Final Reflections
One of the most valuable lessons I took from this traineeship was learning not to rely on AI blindly. While AI can be a useful tool for research and generating ideas, I learned that it can also produce “AI slop” – generic, low-quality content – if you don’t review and refine it properly. Knowing when and how to use AI critically, rather than just accepting its output, was an important skill I developed.
I also became confident using Meta Business Suite, learning how to schedule and manage content across Facebook and Instagram from one place, which made the whole content planning process much more efficient. I also gained awareness of ‘insights’ and marketing metrics.
Additionally I learned about GIPHY.com and GIFs and Stickers for user generated content and I worked with Trainer Christine to add a new sticker to the Lough Neagh Artisans approved giphy account – a channel set up to the support the Lough Neagh Artisans Market event that I worked on in my first week on placement.
Cultural and Personal Experience
Overall, I settled into life in Belfast really well, even though understanding the Northern Irish accent was quite a challenge at the start! It took me a good couple of weeks before I felt I could follow conversations properly.
I also learned a lot about the relationship between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, which is more complex than I had realised before arriving, and picking up on this helped me understand the city and its history much better.
One of the things that struck me most at the beginning was how late it stays light in the evening – it doesn’t really get dark until around 11pm in Summer, which felt very strange coming from Italy. On the other hand, shops here tend to close quite early, often by 6pm, which took some getting used to.
During my stay, there were also some protests against immigration in the city, which at one point turned violent, with people setting off fireworks, throwing molotov cocktails and damaging property. The protests actually passed right by my accommodation, and for a while there were riot police stationed outside. It was a strange and quite unsettling thing to witness first-hand, but it also gave me a real, on-the-ground understanding of some of the social tensions that exist in the city, beyond what I had read about beforehand.
Places I Visited
Most of my time outside the office was spent in and around Belfast itself, but I also got to explore a few other towns thanks to work trips with my host Christine: namely Lisburn, Hillsborough, Toome, Newcastle, Bryansford, Castlewellan, Carrickfergus and Hazelbank.
In Belfast city centre, I visited some of the main landmarks, including the Big Fish sculpture along the river and Belfast City Hall 
, with its impressive architecture. I also had the chance to visit the Crumlin Road Gaol Visitor Attraction and Conference Centre, a former prison that has been turned into a museum and event space – walking through the old cells gave me a really interesting (if slightly eerie) insight into the city’s history.
The highlight of my time in Northern Ireland, however, were definitely Newcastle and Carrickfergus.
About Me
My name is Giulio Casano. I am 17 years old (turning 18 on 22nd August) and I come from Pisa, Italy, where I study information technology at an ITIS. I have a strong interest in digital technologies, web platforms, social media, gaming and content creation. Before coming to Belfast, I took part in a student exchange programme in Carmona, Spain, and I have also travelled to Osaka, Japan – experiences that strengthened my interest in different cultures and international environments.
Thank You
I would like to say a huge thank you to my work placement host: Trainer Christine for her patience, guidance and for trusting me with so many hands-on responsibilities from day one. I would also like to thank Intern Europe for organising this opportunity, and Belfast for being such a welcoming city to live and work in for four weeks.
