On Wednesday, we were delighted to host an official welcome party for the Silicon Valley Internship Programme (SVIP) Class of 2015. SVIP, now in its second year, offers UK software engineering graduates a one-year internship with a high growth tech company in the Bay Area. The goal is to foster entrepreneurship by equipping these graduates with some of Silicon Valley’s skills and can-do attitude, which they can then bring back to the UK tech scene.
This event took place in our US headquarters in San Francisco, and we were joined by people from fellow SVIP sponsoring companies GuideSpark, Coffee Meets Bagel, Caring.com, InsideVault, Cask Data and Valuation Metrics. In addition to the SVIP interns, we also welcomed guests from UK Trade & Investment, British American Business Council, and other high-growth tech companies including Lateral.ly and Roam Insight. This celebration was a great chance to officially welcome the new interns, as well as to share ideas about what makes Silicon Valley work so well as a hub for innovation.
In the words of Naomi Coe, Programme Manager for SVIP, “This event was all about thanking the supporters of SVIP and companies that host our interns. A huge part of SVIP is the experience our interns get working day-to-day in the fast-paced environment of a high growth technology company. A month in, the SVIPers have found their feet and are really starting to learn what it takes to write commercial code. LoopUp has been a key supporter of SVIP from day one – a special thanks to them for hosting this awesome party.”
The SVIP interns have plenty of fun ahead, including their first SVIP-sponsored Hackathon this Sunday October 12th, where they will be developing ideas for their own startups. Applications for the SVIP Class of 2016 will be opening in December. To stay updated on the Programme, follow SVIP on Twitter.
For more posts on encouraging entrepreneurship, check out:
Silicon Valley Internship Programme (SVIP) – Class of 2015
Technology in the News: Fab Lab, Seedcamp, Sf.citi and SVIP
Tech City Law: LoopUp Showcases Law Opportunities in London Tech Scene
