When students Brandon and Levi joined the Digital Production, Design & Development T-Level programme, they probably didn’t expect their first tech project to involve an international business and a chatbot for teenagers. But that’s exactly what happened.
Thanks to our industry-led T-Level placement model, the students worked on a live brief for Cornwall Council’s StartNow platform, set by Iteracy, a Tech Cornwall member based in Spain.
The project involved improving a chatbot designed to support young people with questions about mental health, wellbeing and local services. Brandon and Levi’s mission was to:
- Edit the chatbot’s base code to make responses more natural, relatable and human
- Redesign the interface to better match the site and the style that felt right for their generation
And who better to shape that experience than the people the chatbot is built for?
Their insight helped ensure the tone, language and design all made sense for a younger audience, making the chatbot more welcoming and useful.
“Young People like it a lot. Again they mentioned the positive tone of the responses.” – StartNow, Cornwall Council
“Working with Brandon and Levi on a T-level project was immensely rewarding. We were developing a new feature for a website which worked well as a standalone project.” – Iteracy
This collaboration is a clear example of what we at Tech Cornwall are working to prove: that students can gain valuable experience, even remotely, when the project is meaningful and they’re given space to grow.
Ready to get involved?
We’re looking for more businesses to provide project briefs for the next group of students joining us in June and September.
- A project brief, something a student can explore over a few weeks
- A quick intro call with the students
- Occasional check-ins or feedback (we’ll handle the rest)
A few hours of your time could change someone’s path.
Get in touch at: [email protected]
