NMIT’s Best Ever IT Student Snapped Up

News Release

For Immediate Release

NMIT’s Best Ever IT Student Snapped Up By International Technology Company

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology has seen its top IT degree graduate go straight into a job with a successful United States technology company with a team based in Nelson.

Daniel Casey received the highest marks ever awarded on the Bachelor of IT. Even before he graduated he was headhunted for a job with Core Transport Technologies as part of their Nelson team. The rest of the team is based in Florida, USA.

“I was recruited by Core Transport Technologies straight out of my degree. I got work so fast I had to take time off for my own graduation,” says Daniel, who is now employed as a developer and support person for CTT.

Core Transport Technologies has been built up over the past five years by a Nelson based couple – Annette Schleiss- their IT development Manager and Ian Craig. It has a NZ $1.2M turnover and its customers include the United States Postal Service, Continental Airlines and Delta Airlines, all serviced from both the Nelson office and their US office.

Daniel Casey says it was because of the Bachelor of IT connections to the local industry that he got the job.

“NMIT involves local businesses in the course by getting them to mark a section of the
degree project. My project was marked by the person who's now my boss - I guess they liked my work.”

Daniel is the second NMIT IT graduate employed by CTT recently. The other was Sam Bower-Wilkinson. Annette Schleiss says the NMIT graduates are both technically proficient and were work-ready straight from their study.

“Nelson’s a small town, relatively speaking, and we’ve been lucky to have such fantastic resources as NMIT right here. We were able to employ Sam Bower-Wilkinson who is technically very competent and his grounding at NMIT positioned him well for us.

“The following year we employed Daniel – a strong academic, who had won awards for his study. Daniel is very bright, picked up the business rules very quickly and is a valuable team member.”

Annette says the Nelson graduates are up with the best globally and yet much more cost-effective for the company than doing further recruitment in America.

NMIT Head of the School of Business and Computer Technology, Ian Lister, says Daniel also won NMIT’s prestigious Fletcher Challenge Award, given to a student with the highest academic performance.

“Daniel was an exceptional student. He thrived on exploring and extending new ideas. Our tutors loved challenging Daniel’s high abilities and helping him excel in whatever he tackled,” says Ian Lister.

Annette Schleiss says the NMIT graduates are fortunate to be able to gain a degree of international standard and then get a job working for an international company all without leaving Nelson.

“If you go to a big company, you can be a junior programmer for three years in one small area. With our company, the clients are all interesting, it’s as very dynamic area and these two NMIT graduates have been given the opportunity to see far more of IT than you would in a large organisation.”

Daniel says he’s thrilled to have such a great job working for clients all over the world.

“The IT course at NMIT is about as close as you could get to direct preparation for the work I am doing now. Almost all of the skills I use in my day to day work, I learned at NMIT.”

ENDS

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