Twelve members of the 2020 Work-X programme including two remote students.

Each summer, students join the Minds Inspired Work-X programme and gain on-the-job, career-shaping experience, working side by side with Dart's professionals. This year, between the beginning of June and the end of August, 15 students participated in the Work-X programme despite the issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two of the students completed their internships entirely from remote locations overseas, while the rest of the students experienced part of their internship remotely and part of it in the office.

Dart’s Senior Manager Education Programmes Glenda McTaggart, who oversees Work-X, said it was important to continue the programme no matter how the interns participated.

“For many students, gaining work experience is essential to their career decision,” she said. “Although many companies cancelled their summer work programmes this year, we pushed ahead with our first group of Work-X students working remotely. Our Work-X students are an integral part of Dart’s talent pipeline, so to us it was obvious that, even during a pandemic, we had to find a way to get them working.”

McTaggart said she was impressed at how quickly the students, as well as their mentors at Dart, adapted to remote internships and noted that the experience could prove beneficial to the students who will have to take classes virtually this fall.

This article originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of the Camana Bay Times.