When leading companies collaborate with universities to provide cutting-edge training and work experience to students, a host of good things happen. Students benefit. The university benefits. The company benefits. And, perhaps most important, society benefits.
Students gain valuable experience that gives their resumes a solid boost and makes them more competitive in the job market. They learn skills that can help them work more effectively when they do get hired; they can also advance more quickly in their careers.
The university benefits by being able to use the positive results of these collaborations in their marketing efforts as they work to persuade the brightest, most motivated students to enroll with them.
Companies benefit by having a larger pool of very capable candidates to fill their job opportunities with. Often, the students they mentor and train in industry/university partnerships join these same companies upon graduation, ready to make a valuable contribution to their new employers, saving the companies thousands of dollars in post-hire training costs.
And society at large benefits from these industry/university collaborations, having a larger number of well-paid workers to contribute to the economy (through their work contributions and their increased spending power) and to the tax base. Unemployment and “underemployment” is also decreased.
Making Sense hands in action!
Making Sense wholeheartedly believes in the value of industry/university partnerships. We care about education and training for our own team members and more educational opportunities in general, for the greater good of our communities. As a company that “leads from the front”, we are constantly participating in educational conferences, seminars and training’s for our employees. Key leaders within our company also teach in universities on a regular basis.
We are passionate about contributing our expertise and resources help universities attract bright, ambitious students, and we’re passionate about helping these students graduate with some very useful “hands on” industry training to complement their top-notch academic training.
In keeping with our commitment to foster these win-win collaborations between private industry and the academic world, recently some of the leaders from our company, including our Chief Operating Officer Sergio Marchetti and Julian Muro, one of our Gaming Studio project managers, participated in teaching a series of .Net programming technology classes to a group of engineering students at CAECE University in Mar del Plata, Argentina where our development center is located.
In these learning sessions, Sergio and Julian informed eager groups of students about the kinds of challenges they could expect to encounter in the day-to-day work environment, and gave them valuable, actionable strategies to face these challenges head-on and overcome them.
The win-win nature of such teaching sessions is obvious. The students learn how to handle workplace challenges, even before they graduate from the university! And Making Sense benefits from having a larger pool of highly skilled graduates to join with the company after graduation.
Sergio and Julian both enjoy lending their industry expertise in the university setting. Happy to offer students their perspectives on technology, business and life in general, and to share their work-related experiences they feel will benefit the students, they love serving as mentors and advisors to students in a “1-on-1” capacity, apart from the classroom setting.
At Making Sense, we don’t participate at the university level only in teaching technology classes. We also teach other business and industry-related skills, including marketing.
Making a difference way before the university level
Indeed, Making Sense is passionate about partnering with universities to help students sharpen their technical, business and life skills. But, we feel it’s important try to to make a difference in the lives of students starting at a much earlier age.
As this post shows, we have been actively involved in working to promote the use of technology in schools, with young children. We recently partnered with School Number 67 Francisco Scarpati, donating computers, webcams and headsets for students to use, so they can develop technology usage skills.
We believe that when students have access to and are comfortable with technology, they can increase their communication skills, and we believe they often encounter new, wonderful possibilities in their lives.
We want to help young students develop skills that will someday benefit them in the workplace. We also want to show them how to enrich their lives in ways not directly related to work. Computers and webcams help students stay in touch with friends and family all around the world, helping to foster close relationships, even from a vast distance.
Technology can also enable the development of mutually-beneficial relationships with people we’ve never met, and Making Sense wants to encourage school-age children to reach out to their peers in other countries.
So we were thrilled (in conjunction with TO2Network, a leading media production company committed to promoting technology use in Latin American rural schools) to spearhead the “Connecting Schools” project. This will enable children in Mar del Plata, Argentina to take part in a live video chat with school children in rural Chinandega, Nicaragua.
We are planning in the near future to hold workshops to teach children about how to enjoy fun, educational video games; we’ll also teach them the basics of developing these games. We believe this can help reduce the educational underachievement among our young people.
For students in college, about to graduate and enter the workforce, and for much younger school age children, Making Sense is committed to offering an improved academic experience that ultimately leads to greater career achievement.
Like I mentioned earlier, our commitment to education and training is not just to provide it to school and university students, although this is very important to us. We also are passionate about providing ongoing learning opportunities for our employees, even those who have already graduated from a university.
We offer encouragement and help to our employees who want to pursue advanced degrees. Our Chief Gaming Officer Leandro Gonzalez is one such employee. Leandro is pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, and is currently researching novel approaches to 2D and 3D imaging and rendering.
What does our commitment to education and training mean for you?
The benefits of our commitment to education and training are numerous. By our efforts to share our expertise and passion with university students and young children, we are helping to build a more capable, well-trained workforce and a stronger economy. This benefits society at large.
Our commitment to our own education and training benefits you as a Making Sense client. When you invest in our services to design and build your next user-friendly app or revolutionary software program, you get a highly capable, motivated team educated in the latest technological advances. You benefit from our perspective that combines tech industry best practices and our commitment to academic excellence.
We have a proven track record of helping our clients enjoy successful software development experiences. Next time you have a need for an app or software program that offers your users a wonderful user experience, contact us at hello@makingsense.com
We’d love to include you and your company among our many success stories!