As the industry skills shortage epidemic continues unabated one Australian integrator has sunk its teeth into a potential workforce early, trying to secure company loyalty from an early stage.
Australian Information Processing Centre (AIPC) is partnering with Swinburne University of Technology to support a graduate work experience program whereby students participate in paid, supervised placement and employment after the second year of their degree.
The Industry Based Learning (IBL) program is designed to kick start student's careers through valuable "real-world" experience and for AIPC it's a chance to nab some of the best and brightest before they hit the open job market.
"We see this as a way of building our technical resources and maintaining momentum in our graduate placements. By the time they come back to us at the end of their course, they are familiar with the company and our technology, and are ready to hit the ground running" said Robert Beck, AIPC managing director.
A systems integrator concentrating on customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, AIPC provides an industry placement over a period of 24 or 48 weeks (full time) and IBL guidelines require that a student is involved in productive work rather than merely observing. AIPC then offers the student a graduate position at the completion of their course.
Beck told ARN the company formailsed an existing work-study relationship with Swinburne, whose IBL program generally placed students in large R&D institutions and labs, rather than in the commercial space.
AIPC currently has three students and is looking to take on more towards the end of the year.