Management Science and Innovation

IT industry leads the way in quality placements with the e-skills Internship

This week, the best of this year’s e-skills Internship students came together at a ceremony hosted by IBM at Bedfont Lakes for the finals of the e-skills Internship Awards. Sponsored by Prospectsoft, the awards recognise exceptional students on the e-skills Internship programme, as well as the year’s best placement offered by an employer.

Intern of the Year Award was won by Aaron Scrievener who has been on a year-long placement with Capgemini. From the beginning, Aaron knew he had made the right decision in doing a placement, and over time was thrilled by the amount of responsibility he was given and how many aspects of the business he was able to explore “The opportunities at Capgemini have been incredible. I have managed finances, worked in HR Recruitment and I am currently on a project delivering three Data-Warehouses within the sports betting industry. Each opportunity has exposed me to different industries, projects, new skills and the chance to expand my network of contacts.”

Aaron also believes that his placement experience has put him in a much better position to get a job when he graduates: “Working at Capgemini will definitely benefit me with regards to future job prospects. The wealth of skills and experience the placement has provided are applicable to many areas of business and I will certainly be able to use them as I develop my career.” John Gillard, Intern and Graduate Programme Manager at Capgemini, praised Aaron’s work over the last year: “Aaron’s contribution to our business has brought real value to Capgemini - his enthusiasm is infectious and he is a model employee. We will definitely miss him when he leaves us, although hopefully only briefly, to complete his degree.”

Dave Pepperell, Capgemini’s Intern and Graduate Technology Programme Executive Sponsor added: “This is our first year with interns here at Capgemini. The interns and graduates are mixed together to ensure they all have equal opportunities to develop new skills through training and assignments with our clients. The interns, just like our graduates, offer a measurable return on investment within a short period of time.  Aaron’s performance, along with our other interns, has confirmed that Capgemini has made the right business decision to include interns in our mix of junior talent”.

Internship of the year was won by Withers Worldwide, nominated by placement student Caryn Haynes. Alison Dobson, IT Service Delivery Manager at Withers said: “We are delighted to have won the Internship of the Year award. Our internship programme is key to developing our talent of the future, and we are pleased that the nomination by Caryn recognises the value we place on developing students.   Caryn has been an integral part in the success of this programme for us - her willingness to learn new things and her positive attitude has shown us how such a programme can really benefit our business.”

Karen Price, Chief Executive of e-skills UK congratulated all the nominees, saying “I’m always incredibly impressed by the quality of the students on the e-skills Internship, and this year is no exception. I’m also delighted to see the ever growing number of employers offering such excellent undergraduate placement schemes. I’d like to thank our sponsors ProspectSoft and IBM for hosting these awards today, which are a great way of celebrating success and demonstrating how the IT industry is leading the field when it comes to offering high quality paid placement opportunities.”

About the e-skills internship

The e-skills internship is an industry backed student placement programme designed to boost the employability of graduates. Students undertake placements and develop a set of employability skills that are defined by employers in the IT sector. The certificate of employability skills, which is awarded at the end of the placement, provides evidence of highly valued skill to employers that are recruiting graduates. Placement students also report performing better when they return to their university studies.

Over 500 students, 250 employers and 50 universities have benefited from the e-skills internship programme. Employers supporting the scheme include GlaxoSmithKline, National Grid, IBM, Network Rail, Kinetic Solutions and Select Software. More details can be found at http://www.e-skills.com/internship