LAUNCHING his own business to design and develop software products for the mining and engineering industry, University of Newcastle student Viv Jayachandran has been awarded Student Entrepreneur of the Year.
He was among six students recognised for their industry placement achievements at the University's Employability Excellence Awards held at Callaghan Campus on Wednesday night.
Mr Jayachandran undertook a 12-week Career-ready placement at The Melt in Warners Bay which he says opened his eyes to what "real-world" business required.
"The mentorship during the internship was really important in guiding me and developing the skills I needed to launch my own start-up," he said.
"They got me to work on real-world solutions to problems, it essentially threw me into the deep end."
After undertaking his Career-ready placement, he launched his business, Jaegersoft.
"I met some start-ups that needed help and saw the opportunity. I began to grow my network and launched my business," he said.
His staff is made up of alumni and current students from the University and they work to design and develop innovative software products for businesses in mining and heavy industry, advanced manufacturing and engineering industries.
UON Vice-Chancellor professor Alex Zelinsky congratulated the 170 nominees at the awards night and said every student starting a degree at the university now undertakes a Career-ready placement as part of their studies.
"These placements ensure graduates get the practical experience that makes them highly competent and employable graduates when they finish their degree," he said.
Thirteen organisations were also inducted into the Hall of Fame at the awards night.
