School of Digital Technologies Manukau kaimahi ‘staff’ and ākonga ‘learners’ alongside LSG Sky Chef leadership at a special celebration lunch to recognise what they have achieved together this semesterIn Brief:
- A partnership between School of Digital Technologies Manukau and LSG Sky Chefs gave five Bachelor of Digital Technologies students the opportunity to work on real-world industry projects as part of their studies.
The collaboration has supported a semester-long industry engagement allowing ākonga to incorporate workplace-based capstone projects into their programmes.
This included creating a live safety reporting system for the company’s health & safety and security teams.
“Previously, the teams would export the data into Excel and clean it up manually as well as build reports using Excel formulas. We replaced this with five live dashboards which require less manual work,” says Roi Roi Tun Sing Nan, who in the future would like to work in software engineering and web development.
“We also researched longer-term solutions, including a business case for an enterprise safety management system,” says Ludmila Dissanayake, who is pursuing a career in data analytics and data engineering.
“We did a real project, for a real client,” she says, proudly.
Digital Technologies ākonga Ashque Cabales, Cyril Tolomia and Muskan Arora also took part in the industry engagement.
The work included automating previously time-consuming processes, streamlining data pipelines, and improving reporting capabilities.
The resulting solutions delivered measurable savings in time, effort, and cost, while also enabling real-time dashboard reporting in areas where this functionality did not previously exist.
“We started our collaboration with MIT and Unitec after they approached us wanting to place some Operations students for work placement,” says Ashton Dempsey, People & Culture Manager – LSG Sky Chefs.
“When that had successfully started, LSG Sky Chefs was approached to see if we had an opportunity for Business Information students. Following the success of both streams of students, LSG Sky Chefs is looking forward to continuing and growing the relationship,” Mr Dempsey says.
“We have received very positive feedback from LSG Sky Chefs regarding both the quality of our students’ work and their professionalism throughout the project,” says Academic Lead, David McCurdy.
“LSG described the students as an exceptional team that worked hard, collaborated effectively, and supported one another throughout the engagement.”
The partnership began earlier this year when Digital Technologies lecturer Zainal Shah was introduced to the company by School of Business Manukau lecturer Anita Keestra.
LSG Sky Chefs has already expressed strong interest in continuing the collaboration with future opportunities extending beyond data analytics to including IT support, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, software development and networking.
“Our growing relationship is a great example of what applied education is all about. It gives our students the opportunity to work alongside industry professionals, tackle real business challenges and develop the technical and professional skills employers value,” says Head of School, Dr Alaa Al Janaby.
“Seeing our students deliver meaningful solutions and receive such positive recognition from industry is incredibly rewarding. We look forward to strengthening this partnership and creating more opportunities for our students and industry partners.,” Dr Al Janaby says.
To recognise their achievements, LSG Sky Chefs organised a special celebration lunch with the company’s Managing Director and HR/Safety Manager attending, where ākonga were presented with a token of appreciation and thanked for the contributions they have made during the semester.
