Sonalake's graduate programme recognised at Tech Excellence 2017

We are delighted to be winners at Tech Excellence 2017. On Thursday May 18th at the gala dinner our Telecommunications MD Niall Halpenny received the Professional Development Award, which recognises Sonalake as a place to work and our Graduate Engineer Development Programme.

Now in its fourth year, the programme was designed as a new approach to raising the bar on graduate development. It’s based on the cornerstones of a rigorous recruitment process; a highly facilitative and challenging environment; and a clarity of vision as to what constitutes the ‘complete engineer’.

We want to facilitate our graduates to become 'Complete Engineers' by exposing them to the reality that technical proficiency and intellectual capacity alone do not result in advanced engineering output. We are trying to coach them to develop their working behaviours, emotional intelligence skills, and appreciation for the business value of software output. As an example, we ensure early direct customer exposure as part of this journey.

Through the programme, Sonalake has witnessed rapid personal development and excellent job satisfaction feedback from our graduates and over the four-year period we have had only one graduate leave the company due to an opportunity to pursue a PhD.

Sonalake also seeks diversity in terms of education and professional experience, industry backgrounds and indeed social backgrounds. Innovation is more readily enabled when a diverse range of skills and backgrounds combine to succeed, and we have secured a super knowledge and idea sharing environment to foster this, supported by internal systems.

The graduate programme will continue to be a big part of our employee development and is currently being implemented at our Poznan offices. With a thriving student population, Poznan presents a perfect opportunity to work closely with local universities to develop the programme into one of the city’s most laudable.