Editor's note: Readers of the free Electronicstalk weekly email newsletter will have read this news the week it was announced. Click here to request to be added to the circulation.
Step Solutions: Electronic Engineering, the DTI-backed business support initiative, has only 20 more subsidised projects left to offer to small businesses this year.
Step is giving small or medium-sized companies the opportunity to benefit from having a highly skilled undergraduate to undertake a specific electronics-related project to develop their business.
The Step Solutions: Electronic Engineering scheme matches UK companies who have clearly defined, business driven electronics projects with undergraduates who are studying electronics and related disciplines.
Placements can range from 4 weeks to a year, and qualifying SMEs can subsidise the cost of employing the student through a DTI grant.
Just 20 of these grants are now available.
Discussing the search for host companies, Philip Donnelly, the Managing Director of Step Enterprise, states: "We secured a large number of successful projects during the summer, and are now looking for companies who would benefit from short-term or long-term projects before the end of the year.
For qualifying organisations, 20 of these could be subsidised by the DTI, providing a very cost-effective way for host companies to apply skilled resource to existing requirements or to develop projects that might, otherwise, never get off the ground".
He adds: "In the past many such projects have resulted in significant bottom line benefits for the companies involved, while benefiting the student by adding an extra dimension to the students' practical and business skill base".
 

• See contact details for Step Enterprise and other news
• Email this news to a colleague