The students, who all completed a Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma in IT at NRC, were originally selected by Equiniti to work and receive additional mentoring and training with the company, during the second year of their course. The students have now returned to progress with their studies and are now studying for a Level 4 Higher National Diploma in Computing and Systems Development at the Newtownabbey Campus.
Speaking about their success, student Russell Lyness said “We have been exceptionally lucky with the work placement which resulted in employment. We are currently employed as New Entrant Software Developers. From the very first day at the company we were treated like members of the team and we have each been assigned to live projects. Some of the tasks include writing specifications documents, creating update script for database changes, developing changes to the system with c# coding, creating and deploying reports and I have also been involved in daily team and client meetings.”
The three students agree that the work placement provided an incredible opportunity to work alongside a team of professional developers in a busy work environment which has given them transferable skills and experience in the IT industry.
Student Benjamin Semple commented that the experience he has obtained to date is very relevant to his career path as he has always wanted to develop software. He added that “What better company to learn the skills that I need, than a reputable software development company, which has been awarded for its links with Northern Regional College.”
Commenting on his return to study the HNC course at the Newtownabbey Campus, student Jamie Clarke said “I hope to learn more about the theory of programming and learn how to streamline what I currently do, while I am in work. This will mean that I am able to do my work more efficiently and effectively. The HNC course teaches us to use applications such as SQL server, which is what is used in the IT industry.
Bill Montgomery NRC Curriculum Manager Computing added “NRC works closely with a variety of Northern Ireland and UK companies and seeks to continually offer the qualifications, knowledge and skills required by employers and the practical skills for progression into successful careers or university. We have an excellent partnership with Equiniti and have five students in work placement with the company this year.”
For 2014 NRC is offering two Higher Education courses in computing at the Newtownabbey Campus with the Level 4 HNC Diploma in Computing and Systems Development (with Game and Mobile App Development) and a new Level 5 Foundation Degree in Science (FdSc) in Computing. For further information please log onto the website at www.nrc.ac.uk or contact the College on 028 90855010.
