Stellenbosch-based tech giant, Skynamo, which recently secured one of the biggest start-up investments in recent South African history, offers competitive graduate programmes and internships.
The management platform provider, Skynamo, develops field sales software. The company is able to increase the productivity of sales representatives, by digitising paper-based processes and administrative tasks. Skynamo’s software allows convenient access to customer and product information in the field.
Exposure to different industries is crucial for students to find their best fit in the job market, said Sam Clarke, CEO of Skynamo told MatieMedia.
“The more exposure [students] get to the industry before they choose where they want to work, the better, because then they get to make an informed decision on the type of company they would want to work for,” said Clarke.
Completing an internship or graduate program allows students to see the practical application of their degrees and gain necessary workplace knowledge, according to Clarke. This knowledge allows students to better adapt in the working environment.
“When the engineering students come in, they have a very good understanding of how engineering happens in an academic sense, but that’s very different to how it’s applied in the workplace,” said Clarke.
Graduates and students alike should focus on combining technical and soft skills to be sought-after by future employers, according to Frans Meyer, the CEO of Alphawave, the parent company of Skynamo.
“I think [students] still need very strong technical skills. Soft factors such as reliability and work ethic are things people need if they want to succeed,” Meyer said.
The Skynamo and Alphawave graduate programmes focus on exposing students to different parts of the software and data science business.
“We are trying to advertise Alphawave as a place to come intern because there are various opportunities available,” said Meyer.
After spending four weeks at Skynamo, Damon Mcloughlin, final-year BEng (Electrical and Electronic) student at Stellenbosch University, said he had a clearer idea of the specialisation he wanted to pursue after his degree.
“I was trying to choose between robotics and informatics specialisation for my fourth year and that internship really opened my eyes to how I could enjoy doing informatics and software development as a career,” said Mcloughlin.
The hands-on approach at Skynamo allowed Mcloughlin to get a real sense of how the big corporation is run, he said.
“[Skynamo] gave us actual tasks that the company was busy with which was quite cool because it [felt] like we were actually contributing,” said Mcloughlin.