Tech notes

May 4 2006 By Herb Kim, The Journal

Each month more than a hundred people from across the North-East gather to discuss digital technology and new media at Codeworks Connect's Think and a Drink events.

This ritual, however, is not just for digital industry business people. It is proving a useful vehicle for students to meet potential employers.

If you listen into some of these conversations, subjects covered vary widely from the fortunes of the region's football clubs to the latest news in IT. However, it is not just idle chat. In many instances, these conversations are really job interviews in disguise. Graduate students have already been offered hundreds of placements or job interviews via this regular forum.

In one recent Codeworks Poster Showcase event which highlighted the work of local students, we saw a group of Sunderland students offered jobs at a games development studio and a digital media animation firm. These jobs arose directly out of the casual conversations regarding the high quality of their student work.

That we see so much successful matchmaking happening shouldn't be surprising. A number of regional surveys indicate that while many graduates expect to leave the North-East in search of jobs, they would prefer to stay, given the opportunity.

And from a North-East development perspective, I cannot stress enough the importance of retaining home-grown talent. Our biggest success stories - Sage, Leighton, Reflections, Eutechnyx and Atomic Planet among many others - are all the story of North-East graduates building big and successful North-East businesses with local talent.

The University of Sunderland's Business Bridge programme has been successful in offering student and graduate work placements into technology businesses. Sunderland also runs the Hatchery from their business school and Creativity Works from their media school that give enterprising students the chance to incubate their latest and greatest business ideas. From there, start-up businesses can graduate to St Peter's Gate, which is newly-designed around the needs of university start-ups, or to Sunderland BIC down Wessington Way.

Codeworks has more than 1,200 student members of Connect and we have placed 100 students and graduates into high-growth regional digital companies - and 90% of these placements are offered follow-on work from sponsor companies. Companies speak with their pocket books and they are telling us that the talent we need to grow the North-East is already here.