Student Opportunities

Since 1996, Pembroke College has operated a Corporate Partnership Programme, in which the College works closely with a small number of national and international companies to either initiate or expand their access to the University of Cambridge at both departmental and individual levels. This arrangement is unique among the Cambridge colleges. At present, the following organisations are active members of the programme: BG Group, BT Group, Cheyney Group, DSM, Grosvenor Group, USB, Warwick International Hotels, and Toshiba.

The aim of the Pembroke Corporate Partnership Programme is to provide a straightforward and effective way for businesses to work with the University and to access its hidden network of intelligence.

Who we are:

• Matthew Mellor, Development Director
• Jane Moorman, Corporate Partnership Programme Co-ordinator
• email: corporate@pem.cam.ac.uk

BENEFITS TO STUDENTS

PARMEE PRIZE for ENTREPRENEURSHIP and ENTERPRISE

This prize has been funded by Richard Parmee, who is the College's William Pitt Fellow representing his company, Cheyney Group.

Students from the College, both graduates and undergraduates, present their proposals to a panel of judges, all of whom are Pembroke alumni, for a prize of £1,000. In addition to the winners' prize, all competitors are able to benefit from advice and mentoring (and sometimes funding!) from either Richard Parmee himself, or from the judges.

The 2011-12 Parmee Prize competition took place in March, and the winners of the £1,000 prize were Felice Torrisi, and his team, for their graphen technology project.

Students will be invited to apply for the 2012-13 prize in late November.

If you would like to more information about the prize, please contact Jane Moorman in the Development Office, or telephone 01223 (3)32598, or go to the Parmee Prize website

UNDERGRADUATE SUMMER PLACEMENTS

Students considering a summer placement with any company might like to read this article on making the most of an internship, written by Tanya Goldhaber who spent a summer working with BT. Tanya is now a post-graduate student at Pembroke.

Read other students' experiences of Summer Placements

The company is involved in research, design and development activities for a range of automatic inspection technologies, covering end-of-line X-ray inspection, vision systems and gauging and precision measurement. See cheyney.com or sapphire-alliance.com for more information. Cheyney Group is located at Litlington, South Cambs, which is just outside Royston.

As Richard Parmee, Managing Director (and a Pembroke alumnus) has said - "the focus here is on interesting and fun projects".

The type of projects may involve experimenting with creating magnetic images using mini flux-gate sensors, xray image analysis for automatic cheese cutting, use of very low energy xray to measure mass of powders, and other mad ideas too numerous to mention...

Richard is happy to consider students who are studying engineering, natural sciences, mathematics, or computer science. These placements are suitable for the Industrial Placement requirement for the Engineering Tripos.

Richard is very flexible over the duration of any placement but ideally would like students to be able to join them for at least 8 weeks.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send a CV to Jane Moorman, tel - 01223 332598, who will liaise with Richard Parmee and arrange interviews as necessary.

As a result of Pembroke College's close relationship with BT, through the Corporate Partnership Programme, there are likely to be opportunities for Cambridge undergraduates (typically for periods between six and twelve weeks) over the summer vacation. These are most likely to be based at Adastral Park, just outside Ipswich, Suffolk, and offer an exciting and unique opportunity to students with engineering or computing backgrounds. BT has arrangements in place to provide rented accommodation for placement students in Ipswich, which is a 15-minute bus ride away from Adastral Park. There is also plenty of free car parking space at these flats.

BT has a preference for students in their penultimate year (or final year if you are intending to carry on with postgraduate studies). Students from earlier years of their course may apply, but their applications will not be given such high priority. It is probable that those studying engineering, computer science, physics, management, mathematics, economics (or related subjects) are most likely to be successful in gaining a placement. However, people studying other subjects may also apply.

As BT are only offering a few places this summer, individuals who would be interested in working on world-leading research into, amongst other things, the future of communications on the internet should contact the Corporate Office in the first instance.

BT SENIOR SCHOLARSHIPS (for Pembroke Post Graduate students)

BT wishes to interact with exceptional students from any discipline (this includes those studying arts, humanities and social sciences, as well as scientists, engineers etc.) whose work is of potential benefit (in the broadest sense) to the company, and to this end they offer an annual BT Senior Scholarship to a Pembroke Post Graduate student. The collaborations so far have proved very successful. The competition for a candidate in 2012-13 was held in March, and the successful applicant was Rob Bell.

All current Pembroke post graduate students will be invited to apply when the selection for 2013-14 is due to take place.

CAREERS ADVICE

If any students are interested in careers with any of our partner companies, we will be happy to put them in contact with a suitable person within the company, and to offer any advice or information that we can.