​We believe that Scotland, which has a digital industry which is invested into with £13.8 Billion a year has been
previously unequipped to solve the acknowledged digital skills gap that is affecting us all. The This is Milk Digital Transformation Programme has been designed as a solution to this issue by teaching the skills required to successfully facilitate digital projects and excel in careers including:

• ​Business Analysis
• Service Design
• User Research
• Product Management
• Digital Planning, & Strategy

I was just enjoying my time in college when Ruby Mitchell (the college organiser) said that I will be attending a work placement to fit in with my college course. My course was centered around all things to do with computers, from hardware to webpage design, and I found it all very enjoyable as I have a keen interest in computers and electronics.

​However, during a two-week break, I was invited to attend an interview for a company called ‘This is Milk’. At first I wasn't sure what to think, but I decided ‘why not?‘ I travelled all the way to the interview to be greeted with a surprise when I found out that the office was located in an old renovated prison cell. Although the setting wasn't the usual place I would expect an office to be, I still continued and agreed that I would happily work there for the time that they needed me.

The first day dawned. I entered the room and was greeted by my new ‘cell mates’. They gave me my desk, email address and login details and I was soon up and running, ready to be briefed with my very first tasks.

I was first asked to help test a development website for a client project that was underway. The website was UFiiT.com. I found a few small mistakes that I then had to document on Trello, which lets you share your findings instantly with everybody in the group (pretty cool right?). Although I only found a few small issues like misspelt words I still felt very accomplished and armed with my new skill I scoured over the entire website once again.

If we skip a few days and go to the Friday of that week, this was when the project team meeting was held. I was sitting on the other side of the room, minding my own business when I saw them doing something that confused me at first. They were writing directly onto the walls! Well maybe not directly - they were using magic whiteboard charts that stick to the wall using static, but still.

As the weeks have progressed I learned lots of new skills that I never had when I first entered the prison. Some of the main ones were logging bug (or 'defect') reports and how to edit web pages using things content management systems like Weebly and Wordpress.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at This is Milk, which allowed me to see how a real business handles their client’s needs when building a website and how they produce the final product. Everybody was very friendly and helped me with whatever I needed. So a massive thanks to everybody at This is Milk!

We say goodbye to Stefan Taylor, our BBC Make it Digital in Scotland intern, with a video interview
Angela Prentner-Smith

We’re sad here at This is Milk to say goodbye to our BBC Make it Digital intern, Stefan Taylor.  Over the last 3 weeks, Stefan has become part of the TiM team. Before he left, we took some time to do a little interview with him and find out whether his first impressions of life at This is Milk held true, what he learned and what he most enjoyed. The interview was Stefan’s idea too.

From our perspective, we learned a lot from Stefan and feel privileged to have been able to offer a young person vital work experience. He surprised us with his excellent report writing and research skills. A few examples of the work he did for us: a report on B2B social media best practice; competitor analysis for a client; customer journey workshopping and digital presentation tool research.

He gave us some excellent insight and a fresh perspective we simply wouldn't have had without him.

Asperger Memos

Stefan also opened our eyes to the difficulties that young people entering the workforce face and more so those affected by Asperger’s syndrome. Stefan has used his experiences and new digital skills to create and design his own website, aspergermemos.com, sharing his personal struggles and triumphs. 

Stefan is clearly highly capable with much to offer any workplace, and through working with him we've realised just how much of a hurdle traditional recruitment processes must be for young people with Aspergers and other disabilities. A new angle for us to consider when working with our partners and clients - how can we help make this part of business better?
 
BBC Make it Digital in Scotland

This is Milk had the pleasure of taking part in the BBC Make it Digital in Scotland pilot, a collaboration from Skills Development Scotland (SDS), the BBC, DWP and colleges around Scotland. It’s a pre-employment work placement programme for students (age 16 to 24) to build the digital skills they’ll need to prosper in the modern workplace.   

Learn more about the programme here

Stefan Taylor

My name is Stefan, I am an intern working on a three week placement with This is Milk, learning digital skills as part of the BBC Make It Digital course pilot. A collaboration between Skills Development Scotland, BBC, DWP and Glasgow Clyde College Langside campus. Make It Digital, Inspiring Digital Creativity.

Make It Digital is a course designed to "create life-changing opportunities for up to 5,000 young unemployed people",
through teaching them digital skills and to get a foot on the jobs ladder. So far on the course I have learned:

• Basic coding
• Website creating and maintaining
• Video editing
• Digital campaigning
• Digital image creation
• Also getting some CV and cover letter advice

These skills have been a good acquisition to have, and another thing that has been good for me was everyday for the past four weeks I was on campus 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday. You are in a habit of work before your placement. I attribute this and the skills above to being able to settle in well to my internship here at This is Milk. 

I feel welcome here at This is Milk. Might be only the first week but I've enjoyed each day of the role. The tasks I have done so far I've enjoyed working on with staff and working myself. A shy reclusive person one would describe me but when it came to using teamwork I felt comfortable and appreciated. In the first few days the staff took time to figure me out rather than mould me to what they thought I could do at first. A testament to This is Milk's open approach to working with other companies.

Below is a slideshow describing my first week with the company. A journey slideshow describing work with This is Milk was my idea in a task I was given to come up with some recommendations to engage more with potential customers. So you can see my  journey so far as what I've learned, what I will learn. An idea I came up with I am implementing on my own on my first week. So this is my This is Milk user journey. I am enjoying the ride.

Nicky Logue

​This is Milk is delighted to be taking part in the BBC Make it Digital in Scotland pilot, a joint collaboration from Skills Development Scotland (SDS), the BBC, DWP, and colleges around Scotland. It’s a pre-employment work placement programme for students (age 16 to 24) to build the digital skills they’ll need to prosper in the modern workplace.
 
We’ll host our trainee for 3 weeks, starting in mid-November and we’re already making a list of work they can get involved in to gain some practical experience of digital working.
 
What do we have to offer our trainee?

Most of our client projects use transferrable skills, valuable to any online business, so we’re well placed to offer some great grounding to our girl or guy. Some ideas we’ve had so far include:

• Website usability audits
• Customer journey mapping
• Creating user stories
• Customer insight listening
• Social media strategy
• Digital promotion 

Skills for life...

To provide a well rounded experience we’ve also been thinking about how we run our own business day-to-day and what works best for us. Some of the new tools we’ve come across in the first few months of This is Milk have proven invaluable for our productivity and collaboration as a remote team. So our trainee will be getting involved in:

• Team Google hangouts – keeps the communication flowing when we’re apart.
• Video meetings with clients – one of our clients lives in Canada!
• Digital project planning collaboration - Trello, Slack, Evernote, the choices are endless.
• Shared task tracking – so we stay on the straight and narrow.
• Idea jams – lots of tea and scribbling on the wall makes for excellent lightbulb moments.
• Advanced social search for learning – helps us sift through the mountain of customer and industry research available and get specific.

 
These skills are only going to get more important in future and we can’t wait to share them. And we know we’ll learn a lot too.
 
We haven’t been allocated a college yet but we’re looking forward to meeting our new friend and welcoming them to the wonderful world of This is Milk! The extra pair of hands will really come in handy too….!
 
BBC Make it Digital in Scotland are still looking for employers to offer placements to students.
Learn more about the programme and get involved here