KQ Intern 2025: My Work Experience Placement at Harker

Seamus, a college student from St Helens, joined us for three days as part of the KQ Interns work experience scheme, ran by Knowledge Quarter Liverpool. Seamus completed a sustainability review of Harker, both internally as a company and externally as a product. Check out his recount of his time with us at Harker below:

Hi, I’m Seamus. I live in St Helens and study Geography, Geology and Maths A Level at Winstanley College. Despite having never coded before, I have an interest in data analysis, as well as in social issues like homelessness, so naturally Harker was a great fit for my internship, as it too links social problems with maths and data. I’m really interested in working in social sectors when I am older, in jobs like community development work and counselling, and my work experience at Harker brilliantly facilitated my future aspirations through this work experience.

My internship was facilitated through Knowledge Quarter Liverpool (KQ Liverpool), in which I was hired by the Knowledge Quarter and assigned to work at Harker across my summer internship. When I first found out I was going to be working for Harker, I was so excited, as through researching them I found out how socially impactful their company was, so when I was tasked with creating a sustainability report for them, I initially found it difficult to make criticisms, as aiding homeless shelters is already extremely sustainable. However, during my research about them I found they didn’t express how sustainable they were nearly as much as they could have, and so I decided to focus my report on finding ways to better educate the company on sustainability, and how they can show clients how sustainable they are.

When I first started there, everyone was so helpful, as I was shown through the Harker software, which helped me visualise how much it can really help people, and how streamlined it can make charity operations. I also sent out a sustainability survey to all employees, to which I received plenty of responses, allowing me to analyse the day-to-day sustainability of the workplace. Furthermore, I conducted interviews with two staff members, helping me decide how best to make my report and set sustainability targets for the company. Completing the project gave me a feel of what that kind of job would be like in the future, and I feel so much more educated not just on Harker and sustainability, but also on what it is like to be in a workplace.

I hope my report is as helpful to Harker as they have been to me, and I wish them all the best in the future!