A group of students will have their skills developed as part of the Career Ready programme.

Seventeen students from Queen Elizabeth II High School, Ramsey Grammar, St Ninian’s and University College Isle of Man will be supported by members of the business community to help prepare them for the working world.

Fergus Cole, a Career Ready participant from Ramsey Grammar School, met his mentor at the scheme’s launch event in Noa Bakehouse last week.

He said: ’Even though it is difficult to meet new people, the mentor matching event was beneficial because I made networking contacts from the IT Sector.’

The event was attended by representatives of AFD Software Ltd, Futuretech, Netcetera, Thomas Patrick Creative Agency Ltd, Hansard International, Lloyds Bank, Galileo, Mac Group, Canada Life, PDMS, EPL Recruitment, Cycle360, WiManx and the Department of Education, Sport and Culture.

Career Ready was introduced to the island in 2014 to help students gain work experience before contributing to the nation’s economic growth.

The island’s programme coordinator, Jo Davies, said: ’The Career Ready programme is a unique opportunity for science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) students to learn their craft in school, complimented by enhancing their soft skills by having a professional mentor, earn up to a £1000 on a summer internship, soft skill masterclasses and a free trip to London.’

The programme will begin on Friday, where the group will be taken to London for ’A Capital Experience’.

Students will then meet regularly with mentors to talk about exam preparations, interview tips, UCAS applications and issues relating to the IT industry.

Those sponsoring the scheme include; Career Ready UK, the Department of Education, Sport and Culture, the Department for Enterprise, IT businesses and the Manx ICT Association.