Student consultants present to national computing group

Students from KITC (Kent IT Consultancy) presented examples of their work at an event entitled ‘Becoming a Consultant – the Next Generation’ at the headquarters of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

Student consultants at the KITC are ‘the graduates of tomorrow helping the businesses of today’, and work on projects for paying clients, who are usually local small and medium enterprises. Their work forms as assessed part of their undergraduate or Master’s programme.

Professor Simon Thompson, Director of Innovation at the School of Computing, presented the concept of the KITC to delegates, before students gave examples of current projects and how their work benefits the client and the students. Simon said: ‘Our students were very impressive, not just in the presentations that they gave, but also in making the most of networking at the event. They are a credit to the School and it was good to see our student consultants from both Canterbury and Medway programmes working as such a strong team together.’

The KITC

How do new entrants to the digital economy gain experience in Consultancy? The University of Kent’s School of Computing have an innovative solution through their Kent IT Consultancy (KITC) business unit, a student staffed IT consultancy which delivers services to local small and medium enterprises. Each year KITC has a number of Student Consultant roles which are awarded based on a candidate’s suitability for the role. This supports their mission: “To solve business problems with technology and to make our student consultants more employable”.