Wellington ICT grad school boosts work programme for students

Partners with AWS to help students deliver proof-of-concept and R&D projects for businesses in the capital

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John Taylor - Managing Director and Head of Cloud Transformation, Consegna

Wellington ICT Graduate School (WICTGS) is working with Amazon Web Services to help its software development students deliver proof-of-concept and R&D projects for Wellington’s thriving ICT industry.

“More and more businesses are migrating to the cloud, leaving traditional ‘on-premise’ technology behind,” says Susan Andersen, acting director at WICTGS.

“Allowing our students early exposure to AWS’ services means they will be more employable when they graduate as they will be familiar with this new way of working.”

The partnership will start end of November, meaning students undertaking the master of software development programme can start using AWS tools from December.

The WICTGS is a government initiative with the mandate to work directly with private information, communication and technology (ICT) companies to help deliver masters programmes delivered through the Victoria University of Wellington. The programmes are aimed at recent graduates or people in mid-career looking to transition into ICT.

“Partnering with AWS allows our students to work to their full potential using a suite of tools that make what they can create virtually limitless,” says Andersen.

“One of the tools, Workspaces, gives every student in our master of software development programme the ability to develop and run programs on the capacity of an overseas-based super-computer, even if they are using a $200 netbook.”

The partnership with AWS and delivery partner Consegna is just the latest WICTGS has formalised with local ICT companies, says Andersen.

“WICTGS works with ICT companies to promote student learning and create connections, but businesses benefit from having a resource they can use to trial or research new ideas,” she says. “So far our partnerships have included work with fintechs, e-commerce companies, consultancy practises and leading telecommunication companies.”

John Taylor, managing director of Consegna, says it made sense for AWS and Consegna to go directly to Wellington, the tech hub of the country, and work with Victoria University of Wellington and the Wellington ICT Graduate School “to help students deliver even better outcomes for local businesses”.