To Trade or Not to Trade, Answer is – WGTN Summer of Tech

Summer of Tech is a great initiative with Grow Wellington and other sponsors offering a world-class internship programme helping innovative Wellington companies connect with smart technology students. Wellington’s Summer of Tech programme has been connecting students to employers since 2006. It provides the opportunity for students to be matched into paid work experience roles over the holidays with the opportunity to gain experience and/or move into a more permanent position.

Jimmi Corbishley is one of many Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec) students who has benefited from registering with Wellington’s Summer of Tech programme in 2010. WelTec is proud to be one of the sponsors who supports such an exciting initiative.

The journey all began with Jimmi finishing secondary school, leaving him with a decision on what to study further. Jimmi knew he wanted to study IT; however the challenge came with deciding on which tertiary institution offered the best possible career path. ‘’When I compared the WelTec IT programmes with other tertiary institutions; I preferred the structure and practical nature that WelTec had to offer. Also talking to Ian Hunter, Head of the IT School, about the programmes offered, this clinched the deal, as he eased my mind about not having any previous IT experience.’’

Last year Jimmi completed his Diploma in Software Engineering with cross credits to his 3rd year of Bachelor of Information Technology, which Jimmi has set himself a goal this year to achieve. Jimmi will no doubt achieve his goal after being awarded the Top Student of Year One, during his Diploma in Software Engineering studies.

Jimmi first received a six week internship with another local IT company over the January/February 2010 holidays through information and guidance of Mr Ian Hunter. “This is one of the initiatives that we at WelTec support our students to enable them to become true IT professionals,” says Mr Hunter, “with the correct academic qualifications and practical work experience, our programmes certainly prepare our students to pursue a worthwhile and rewarding career in IT.’’

After completing this internship, Jimmi remained hungry for more practical experience, learning more skills and meeting other like-minded people. With his eagerness to learn Jimmi registered for the Summer of Tech programme, and landed a 10 week Summer internship at Trade Me in 2010/11. His performance speaks for itself: Trade Me have offered him a permanent position as Junior Developer. ‘’Jimmi is a great asset to the Trade Me team and we’re really fortunate to have found him through the Summer of Tech 2010 programme. His studies at WelTec have provided him with a good base of skills to build on, and helped him to be productive pretty much from his first day,’’ says Alan Howard, Head of Development at Trade Me.

Through practical learning and adapting to new working environments, Jimmi constantly refers back to his skills learnt at WelTec to grow himself as a developer at Trade Me. ‘’For me that is the greatest validation that I had chosen the right path,’’ says Jimmi.

ENDS

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