With applications open now for our intern and graduate programmes, we spoke with Nicola Clark, an intern with the Licensing and Compliance team to hear about her time and what she learnt.
What has been the best thing about being on the intern programme?
Being exposed to how the council works and what career opportunities are available.
Why should other students consider an intern position with Auckland Council?
It’s definitely a great exposure to the public sector. It also gives you the opportunity to come up with your own projects and take ownership over some of the work you do.
Tell us about a key piece of work or project you’ve been responsible for.
I’ve been responsible for two key pieces of work at the council:
RDOL Project
This was a project based around the re-workings of the Responsible Dog Owners Licence and how we can use this as a vehicle to get better communication and compliance from low-socio economic communities.
It also focused on how the RDOL is a unique opportunity to provide a pathway for collaboration and relationship building with the southern communities to work towards achieving the goals of The Southern Initiative.
With this it has also allowed for an opportunity to work on improving Auckland’s statistics at keeping those most at risk of injury from a dog (children under nine and Māori) by providing recommendations and solutions to help work with those communities specifically to curb injury rates.
Homeless Project
With this project I had the chance to make a real difference in Auckland’s homelessness situation – I worked on the creation of a services map to help the homeless.
Overall, what was the most valuable thing you learnt on the programme?
I learnt a lot about project management and how to make things happen in such a large organisation. It’s important to know you can make a difference by doing your job, even when it feels like you’re a very small part of the puzzle.
Visit our careers website to apply for and learn more about our intern programme.
