Cybersecurity: HCLTech runs special apprenticeship programme in Hamilton

HCLTech graduate Ike Fayomi (right) with her sister Abiola Onunde (left) and Kristy McSweeney at the graduation.

The first batch of 13 students has graduated from a digital skills pilot apprenticeship programme in Hamilton.

IT firm HCLTech announced it would start a second round of the apprenticeship next year.

The 12-month paid apprenticeship programme called Rise at HCLTech is an integrated learning and training programme that equips secondary school graduates with skills to start a career in the technology industry.

HCLTech said the programme had a special focus on women, Māori and Pacific peoples and covered areas including cybersecurity, coding, and data analytics.

The pilot programme was supported by the Ministry of Social Development Waikato with support from the wider business and education sectors in Hamilton.

HCLTech’s transtasman country head Michael Horton said the programme provided a solution to a “real-world technology skills shortage problem”.

All 13 graduates had now taken up fulltime employment at the HCLTech headquarters in Hamilton.

Chief executive of New Zealand technology industry organisation NZTech, Graeme Miller, said tech skills had become “increasingly critical”.

“HCLTech is to be congratulated for launching a programme that increases digital literacy and boosts the country’s productivity. [The apprenticeships] serve as blueprints for other paid digital apprenticeship programmes that could be rolled out nationally.”

HCLTech is a global technology services and consulting company which is operating across 60 countries. The company mainly focuses on services including digital engineering, cybersecurity, digital consulting and Artificial Intelligence.

Stay up to date with the Waikato Herald

Get the latest Waikato headlines straight to your inbox Monday to Saturday. Register for free today - click here and choose Local News.