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We are delighted to welcome 6 students, our largest ever intake, into our software development placement programme. We extended the placement programme for 2020, following our highest ever volume of applications. This year’s students are from Queen Mary, University of London, University of Kent and University of Surrey.

Our Software Development Placement programme offers students who opted to include a year in industry as part of their university degree the opportunity to gain real-world experience, developing software for real customers. Refined over more than 10 years, it offers dedicated mentoring and early customer exposure, as well as the opportunity to work in Fivium’s highly sociable and vibrant culture.

“What I liked about the programme when I was a placement student,” commented Chris Tasker, Fivium’s Placement Programme Coordinator, “was that it went beyond to the bounds of pure software development to offer a rounded business experience. In my placement year, I got to write software that I saw customers use. I also got to understand the business context and the customer pains that made the software I was writing so important. I think this early exposure has made me a better developer.”

Talking about the differences in the 2020 programme, Chris Tasker said “This year has obviously presented us with some fairly unique challenges such as how do you get a new team who would normally sit next to each other to bond with each other, their mentors and other colleagues? We overcame this by setting games, challenges and synthesizing a room that the placement team and at least one of the mentors log into to work, so they can still shout across the desk if they need help. By thinking creatively, we are doing our best to ensure that our students still have a useful, enjoyable and rewarding placement year.”

After completing their degrees, many former placement students go on to re-join us as full time employees and then go on to become mentors themselves.

“I think it’s great,” commented Sam Warner, former placement student and mentor, “that so many of us who first came into contact with Fivium through the placement scheme, then go on to take on mentor roles, because we understand what it’s like. Not only that, but with Fivium, you can really see career pathways in action: I graduated in 2014 and now I’m a Lead Software Developer.”

Planning for our 2021/22 Student placement programme has already begun. Further details will be available in October.

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