Community News

TNC18 Welcomes a New Generation of IT Students

What better event than TNC to introduce future innovators to our community? This year GÉANT’s Future Talent Programme (FTP) continues, in close collaboration with NRENs, to enable IT students to take centre stage at TNC18.

15 bright IT students were nominated by eight European NRENs to submit their best ideas and follow a training course, provided by GÉANT Learning and Development (GLAD), to prepare for the great occasion.

Nominations and support from NRENs

This year an increased number of NRENs embraced the FTP and fully supported their students’ quest for TNC18. The selected students were given the opportunity to participate in the Lightning Talk Challenge or in the Poster Pursuit, both initiatives aimed at offering finalists the opportunity to experience TNC for the first time, and introducing them to the international R&E community.

The TNC18 Programme Committee was impressed with the calibre of all nominations and topics submitted by the following European NRENs:

AMRES, BELNET, FCT FCCN, SWITCH, GARR, RedIRIS, RESTENA and SURFnet.

Trained and coached by professionals

All candidates were trained via e-workshops by professional coaches and community experts.

Nadia Sluer, Technical Training Coordinator for GÉANT, said: “The e-workshops are a fundamental and mandatory part of the programme; their aim is not only to boost the confidence of finalists, but also to equip all future talents with the soft skills needed in their future careers.”

Up-skilling Europe’s IT workforce: GÉANT Future Talent Programme

Irina Mikhailava, Head of GÉANT Learning and Development (GLAD) explains: “At GÉANT, we believe it is crucial to engage, foster and develop future IT professionals. This sentiment holds true now, more than ever, as the sector undergoes a period of considerable growth. We set up the GÉANT Future Talent Programme to demonstrate our commitment in the up-skilling of Europe’s future IT workforce. The FTP is the gateway for young professionals to the European and global networking community. It offers them an opportunity to grow and develop their skills through a free webinar series. Furthermore, it rewards learning by offering free admission to prestigious international events to those individuals whose work is recognised by an independent panel.’’

The GLAD team designs and executes the programme and provides coaching and learning to talents across the community with engaging activities that are additional to their academic studies.

This approach enables NRENs to play a major role in developing young people’s skills and inspire their fresh thinking. By participating in the FTP, NRENs can strengthen relationships with their member institutions, motivate high quality students and get them excited about their work with stimulating opportunities to look forward to.

FTP at TNC18:

  • 5 Student Lightning Talks accepted.
  • 4 Student posters accepted.
  • 9 new topics proposed.
  • Student lightning talks will take place on 11 and 12 June.
  • Poster presentations will take place on 11, 12 and 13 June – during the afternoon breaks.

See tnc18.geant.org for more information.

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