Otago Polytechnic graduate Sean Squires, now working for
Dunedin company Enabling, is one of 17 students to find
high-tech work in Dunedin after completing the inaugural
Dunedin ICT Internship Programme. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
A programme encouraging Dunedin's high-tech businesses to
take on interns is expanding, after helping students find jobs
and injecting more than $800,000 into the city's economy in its
first year.
The Dunedin ICT Internship Programme was launched last year
by the Dunedin ICT Business Cluster in conjunction with the
University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic.
The cluster was a partnership between the Dunedin City
Council and the city's 160 information and communication
technology (ICT) companies, and the internship programme -
supported by a $45,000 grant from the council's industry
project fund - aimed to help ICT companies find and retain
talented staff.
Council business development adviser Graham Strong said the
programme had been an "outstanding" success in its inaugural
year.
Thirty-two students had been matched with companies across
Dunedin and offered summer internships, after being selected
from a group of 80 students at a speed dating-style
recruitment event at the University of Otago late last year.
The placements included 24 paid positions - 19 of them
supported by the industry project fund - and eight unpaid
positions, and led to 17 interns being offered jobs at the
end of their placements, he said.
The jobs included four permanent full-time positions, six
permanent part-time jobs and seven short-term contracts.
It was estimated the jobs would add $805,000 to the city's
GDP, he said.
One student had started a business after completing the
internship, and one company reported their interns had
together created more than $24,000 in revenue during their
placements.
Among the interns was Sean Squires (21), of Invercargill, who
landed a two-month placement at Dunedin company Enabling in
December last year, just after graduating with a bachelor of
information technology degree from Otago Polytechnic.
The internship involved several weeks of on-the-job training,
followed by work developing software and meeting clients, and
had helped him to develop a host of practical skills, Mr
Squires said.
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