Nurturing Talent and Innovation: YouView’s Early Careers Success Stories

At YouView, we pride ourselves on nurturing the next generation of tech talent through our comprehensive two-year technology careers scheme. This programme offers early career seekers the opportunity to work across various roles within the tech and business sectors, honing their innovation, collaboration, and leadership skills. Our goal is to prepare participants for impactful careers in the technology industry by allowing them to develop their expertise in real-world settings while contributing to groundbreaking projects at YouView.

Upon completing the two-year programme, colleagues are placed into a specialist team within the company, further solidifying their roles as key contributors to our success. We recently celebrated the success of our latest cohort with a well-deserved leaving drinks event, marking the end of their (induction) journey and the beginning of their careers at YouView.

We are particularly proud of the achievements of one of our graduates, Connor Webster. Connor, who completed our graduate programme and is now a Lead Software Engineer at YouView, was recently recognised as the runner-up for the RTS Young Technologist of the Year 2024. He received the Coffey Award for Excellence in Technology for his outstanding work, which includes leading initiatives like running the YouView UI Application on a new platform. Connor’s success exemplifies the calibre of talent our programme produces and its role in shaping future leaders in the technology sector. For more details, you can read the full article on the RTS website.

In addition to our early careers scheme, we are also committed to nurturing young talent through initiatives like Ada, the National College for Digital Skills work experience programme. This year we welcomed our second cohort of five students for a two-week placement, offering them a glimpse into the tech industry and the opportunity to work alongside our experienced team. This initiative reflects our dedication to providing valuable learning experiences at all levels of education.

The impact of our work experience programme is evident in the positive feedback we've received. We were delighted to see some of our work experience students sharing their experiences on LinkedIn:
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Farrukh Ahmad

I wasn't too excited about the work experience with YouView TV Limited initially, but the last two weeks have been wonderful. My fellow peers and I learned so much in such a short period of time. It was really fun and insightful working as an actual employee on a real project with industry-grade tools. The talks YouView organised were also very helpful, providing insights into what each role entails at a company like YouView and in the tech sector in general.My personal favourite talk was from Robin Mace about Cyber Security. His enthusiasm and energy made it particularly memorable. The most useful workshop, in my opinion, was from Lucy Hollyer, who gave us an introduction to React in a way that was easy to understand. I can't thank Elouise Inzani and Hang Du enough for organising this for us and Ada, the National College for Digital Skills, for presenting us with such an amazing opportunity....

Ebun O.

Today marks the last day of my work experience as a junior software engineer at YouView TV Limited with my peers.The last two weeks have been absolutely incredible. Not only did we get a chance to work on a realistic project using high-quality code, but we also gained an insight on various topics due to talks given by members of different areas of the company. During the entirety of the project, I was able to collaborate with my peers, as well as receive immense amounts of help from the graduates that volunteered to aid us with this experience. My peers and I learnt a variety of skills and knowledge that not only aided us with completing the project, but will also help us in our future endeavours.A big thanks to all the graduates who volunteered to help my peers and I with this this 2 week experience... I would also like to thank Elouise Inzani and Hang Du who facilitated this experience. It’s been a wonderful, engaging two weeks, and I hope to work with Youview in the future.

Safiyyah Chowdhury

Today's the last day of my work experience as a junior software engineer at YouView TV Limited. This was really an amazing experience offering me the chance to learn numerous new skills, including working with new applications and software, which i hope to use again in the future. The project was engaging and allowed me to address my weaknesses and improve my collaboration skills with my team members‍ .I would like to show my gratitude to all the grads who volunteered their time to help support me and my peers along this journey. Also a shoutout to Elouise Inzani and Hang Du who organised and helped to make this whole experience impactful. Hope to work with YouvView again.

These posts serve as a testament to the programme's success and the value it adds to both us and the students. Through programmes like our early careers scheme and partnerships with educational institutions, YouView remains committed to cultivating innovation and developing the next generation of tech leaders.

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