University of Newcastle student, Viv Jayachandran was recently awarded Student Entrepreneur of the Year at the University’s Employability Excellence Awards for his achievements, establishing his software business, Jaegersoft.

Viv was among six students who were recognised for their industry placement achievements at the awards held at the University’s Callaghan Campus.

The awards celebrate the achievements of students in their work placements and the invaluable contributions of staff and industry partners in creating meaningful career-ready placements.

Viv said he was inspired to launch Jaegersoft after undertaking a career-ready placement.

“As part of my degree I undertook a 12-week placement at The Melt in Warners Bay and it was really the first introduction to what real-world businesses required,” Viv said.

“When I was undertaking the placement, I met some start-ups that needed help and saw the opportunity. I then began to grow my network and launched my business.

“The mentorship during the internship was really important in guiding me and developing the skills I needed to launch my own start-up, because they got you to work on real-world solutions to problems. It essentially threw me into the deep end and opened the door to the real world.”

Viv’s business now comprises of a team of mostly alumni or current students from the University and they design and develop innovative software products for businesses in mining and heavy industry, advanced manufacturing and engineering, industries.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alex Zelinsky congratulated all the nominees.

“I want to congratulate all the students, staff and industry who were nominated this year. We had almost 170 nominations for the awards, which reflected the effort we have placed on creating the right kind of placements for students,” Alex said.

“Every student starting a degree at our University now undertakes a career-ready placement as part of their degree. These placements ensure graduates get the practical experience that makes them highly competent and employable graduates when they finish their degree.”

With 13 organisations inducted into the Hall of Fame at the awards night, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic, Professor Mark Hoffman said the career-ready placements benefited both industry and students.

“The industry partnerships we have are instrumental in allowing students to gain practical skills, and seamlessly transition from university to the workforce,” Mark said.

“For industry, the benefits are two-fold – it provides an opportunity for businesses to give back to the community and creates a pipeline where businesses can identify highly employable graduates and attract them to their organisation, which is particularly beneficial in a tight labour market.

“Our students are also learning using the latest technology, which creates the opportunity for a two-way learning channel that means industry can learn about some of the new technologies available to them, while sharing their own experience with the students.”

See the full list of winners and to read more here.

IMAGE | 2023 Employability Excellence Award winners.