Bermuda College has formalised its public-private partnership with Validus Re which is opening up opportunities for students to enter the IT field for reinsurance companies.

The firm has been offering internships at the college for about two years and four students have so far been involved.

Trescot Wilson, acting vice-president for student academic affairs and dean of the Division of Business, Hospitality and Technical Education at Bermuda College, thanked Validus Re for its support.

Dr Wilson said: “Bermuda College is very proud of its Computer Information Systems leading to the Associate’s Degree, that incorporates and reflects the prime components of the industry throughout its curriculum, and which prepares students to be immersed in cutting edge technology on a daily basis from technical support, programming, computer networking, to desk side support and more. “This would not have been possible without the collaborative effort of Validus Re. They have been invaluable in offering full internships to Bermuda College students and giving them the ability to hone their skills with real life work experience and on-the-job training with several ending up with full time employment.”

Validus Re encouraged more businesses to follow its example in giving students internships including work experience.

Vice-president and head of information technology at Validus Re Andy Newton said: “Our learning and talent development team reached out to Dr Wilson in May 2015 to discuss the area of mutual interest, service desk internships for CIS students.

“Within only a few months, this programme was live. Our first intern, Brandon Franke, joined the team in January 2016 for the spring semester, Jameko Gomes followed in the 2016 fall semester and most recently Diogo Mota. They have all represented the college well and were a pleasure to have on our team.

“For the 2017 spring semester, we identified Victoria Santos who had a keen interest in programming.”

The students have been exposed to a rigorous IT environment and have been involved in projects including Windows 10 roll out, IT self service portal, hardware refresh and equipment moves.

Validus also worked with the students to create STEM based projects to teach after school programmes in Bermuda and in the United States.

Chelito-Desilva Ruddock, assistant vice-president and senior application support analyst at Validus, said: “Our local IT team also supports interns from the college and other student-focused initiatives including a programming camp once a week at Prospect Primary School.”

Mr Mota is working as a teaching assistant for a Bermuda-based after school programme.

He said of his internship: “Validus has given me the environment to practice some of the skills that I have learnt at the college.

“I have been able to learn how to create a stable image and how to deploy an image. I have improved on my knowledge of remotely accessing and managing computers and some of the newer types of software.”

Mr Gomes said he wanted to gain as much experience as possible in order to help him achieve his future goals.

He added: “In the immediate future, I hope to continue my studies at university overseas. I hope to start by studying networking and hopefully work towards my storage and security. I would also like to get a certification in Programming and Linux systems.”

Both Mr Mota and Mr Gomes plan to complete the Associate’s of Science in Computer Information Systems and graduate in 2017.