FOUR Limerick students are set to take part in a different kind of work placement kicking off this summer.
Students from the University of Limerick’s (UL) Immersive Software Engineering (ISE) programme will undertake a new work placement in association with Dogpatch Labs, which will see the four students getting a feel for starting their own businesses, rather than minding someone else’s.
Jack Casey, Dylan Teehan, Mia Borko, and Oluwajomiloju Olajitan will all get to spend 12 weeks working with Dogpatch Labs and experience what it would be like to work on their own business idea or work in one of Dogpatch’s start-up affiliates.
Emma Heaton-Esposito with Dogpatch Labs told the Limerick Post that the students will get to work on their own business idea during their placement.
“This is a new avenue, we’re giving them access to that startup ecosystem that they don’t immediately feel like when they’ve left university, they have to go down the traditional route of going into a large organisation,” Emma explained.
She explained that the programme will give the students “another eye-opening experience that entrepreneurship is another avenue. And we’re giving them first-hand experience”.
Ms Heaton-Esposito said that the work experience programme will “give students a unique exposure to the world of entrepreneurship. And, you know, if you think about it, when you’re studying, and when you’re part of that kind of structured educational, theoretical environment, it’s really hard to apply that when you go out into the real world”.
Professor Stephen Kinsella, ISE co-director and head of the Department of Economics at the Kemmy Business School in UL, said that the work placement will give students a chance to work in or even create the companies of the future.
“Some of them will work in the best companies. Some of them will create the best companies, and that is what our partnership with Dogpatch Labs will help to build. We are excited to work with everyone at Dogpatch Labs and the Patch Youth Accelerator to make these new companies a reality,” Professor Kinsella said.
The four successful students will spend 12 weeks across the summer working with Dogpatch Labs as part of their Immersive Software Engineering degree.
