Marketing in Practice Training in Northern Ireland
During my traineeship in Belfast, I had the chance to learn a lot of things with my workplace host, Trainer Christine Watson. I found her to be nice and patient and she taught me many useful things for my future.
From the beginning, I worked on many projects and discovered new skills. For example, I created visuals for Ormeau Business Park and I added these to the events page of the company website, which helped me to improve my knowledge and experience in layout and brand consistent communication.
I also made Instagram posts and stories for the Customer Service Week campaign, which was very interesting and fun to do.
Working on social media marketing was something I really liked, and it helped me to understand better how marketing and communication works commercially.
I also learned how to write better emails in English, and how to be more professional when I communicate online.
My English improved a lot during this traineeship, because I spoke every day with Christine and my colleague, Marlene.
Marlene was my colleague during the duration of my Erasmus placement and she’s from Austria. She’s super nice and funny, so we got really close, became good friends and I became her photographer when we were out and about working with various clients – she was delighted with a number of the photos that I managed to capture of her.
I also attended a training workshop where my placement host, Christine was teaching people how to use the graphic design platform Canva.com. It was very interesting to see how she worked, how she explained things and I learnt some new features of Canva Pro, for paying users, that I was not aware of before, for example Brand Kit and Bulk Create. During my traineeship I added a number of brand features to the Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing Brand Kit within the organisation’s canva account.
I learned how to use Giphy too, the benefits of it for brand placement and user generated content marketing strategies and tactics (you can view the GIFs and Stickers that I added to the approved brand account on GIPHY – do feel free to utilise some of them within your Instagram stories or Tweets). To meet my priority learning goals I mostly worked on visual marketing, graphic design and I created visuals and posts for a variety of different projects.
Exploring Northern Ireland
One day, I had the opportunity to visit Newcastle, a short (60 minute) drive from Belfast. It was amazing! I even jumped into the cold sea at the National Trust Murlough Beach, when Marlene & I explored this nature reserve. The water was so cold but so fun.
I was also lucky to visit Belfast Castle and the King’s Coronation Garden at Hazelbank Park, which were very beautiful places. When we visited the Belfast Castle, there was a little garden on one side and we were tasked to find nine cats. With Marlene, we searched for a long time and finally we found ten instead of nine! It was really funny. After that, we also walked inside a maze near the castle – it was super cool, even if there was a bit of mud inside, but that was ok.
Also, I visited the Parliament Buildings in Stormont Estate, just outside Belfast city centre. It’s a big white building on top of a big hill, in the middle of a large park. Inside, I had the chance to attend meetings of Government Ministers talking with each other. It was ultra interesting – I stayed at least fifteen good minutes listening to them. Even if I didn’t understand everything, I think it was really something special to see. I managed to understand some things though.
Christine organised these visits, and I really thank her for giving us this opportunity to discover more of the culture here in Northern Ireland.
This Erasmus traineeship helped me to be more creative, more confident, and more independent in my work. It was a very good experience for me, and I’m sure it will help me a lot for the future. My teacher visited our workplace in Belfast and was delighted at the positivity of the placement report on my work, my attitude, my skills and my new competences.
That’s all, but honestly, it was really a great experience that I will never forget and I would encourage others to invest their time in work placements too.
Work Sample 1 – Customer Services Week Social Media Visuals, created using Canva.com Pro account
About my Internship:
So at first they offered ( erasmus+) to place me in a printing factory for my work experience in Belfast but I requested something more related to my studies. So they proposed me Watson and Co. Chartered Marketing and after meeting Trainer and Host Christine via video call I was excited about the prospect of real life work experience in a marketing agency. I’m really happy to be able to discover new things, new places and a new culture every day. Development SummaryMarketing and Communication Traineeship, Belfast September 15, 2025 – October 17, 2025
Technical Skills Demonstrated in the Workplace
Marketing Campaign Planning
Desk Based Research including Marketing Analytics
Graphic Design using Canva.com
Social Media Marketing – Visual Content Creation & Copywriting
User Generated Content & Brand Asset Development GIFs & Stickers for Giphy.com
Corporate Photography, Photo Editing & Videography
Blogging & Website Content Marketing using WordPress
Proficient Use of English Language – Verbal and Written
Responsible Use of AI for Marketing Ideas and Draft Copy
Professional Qualities and Skills Demonstrated in the Workplace
Reliability, Good Initiative, Teamwork, Curiosity, Adaptability,
Social and Communication Skills, Creativity, Problem-solving,
Commercial Awarenedd, Emotional Intelligence, Time Management,
Logistics, Listening, Positive Attitude, Prioritising Tasks,
Willingness to Learn, Attention to Detail, Brand Guardianship
