Twenty University students boosted their knowledge and skills in Soda’s inaugural Summer Intern programme, which recently wrapped up.

The professional development programme was developed in collaboration with Callaghan Innovation Agritech ITP for students who were completing their summer internship with Waikato based technology companies.

The nine-week programme provided students with support and resources to make the most of their summer experience and help them develop skills to assist their professional growth.

The programme included two site visits to EC8 and Gallagher.

At EC8, the business founder talked students through technology development requirements as a small start-up, as well as the process of starting a business and raising funds.

At Gallagher, the students were given a tour of the R&D facilities, production lines, head office and security facilities. They learnt about R&D processes in a large organisation and how customer experience can help product development.

The students also attended four workshops: Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship & Commercialisation, The Art of Networking & Interviewing and Business Model Canvas.

Jedd Lupoy is a fourth year Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Software Engineering at the University of Waikato who completed his summer internship at Rocketspark. He said: “My favourite part of the intern programme was getting to network with other interns. The course content improved my understanding of design thinking and the business model canvas in the context of starting a new business which was a fascinating insight.”