In November 2021, I undertook a UKRI Policy Internship with the Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS). On this placement, I undertook a number of projects working within the Arts, Heritage, and Tourism sector under one of the Band B Analysts, Edwin Poon.
My key project in this space was to understand the key issues to accessibility within the tourism sector (post-covid) and to scope out the status of the UK as an accessible destination. This meant doing stakeholder meetings and writing up my findings into internal reports which would be shared upwards.
The other projects I worked on surrounded the International Arts their impact on climate change. For this area, I was also tasked with analysing the quality of data that was being produced by a key contact for this sector. I also faced a few unexpected challenges. One such challenge was having to brief the chief executive director of DCMS about the issues and infrastructure of music streaming platforms in 2 x 30-minute sessions (at short notice) as she was being seconded to the Competition Market Authority to do work in this area but had no previous knowledge.
This placement was extremely beneficial in developing my skill set and confidence and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to take on such an internship.