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Inviting Sainsbury’s to a networking event organised by Â鶹´«Ã½ Leicester (Â鶹´«Ã½) has kick-started the careers of three graduates.

Thomas, Sailesh and Dan

Thomas Hunter, Sailesh Patel and Dan O’Kelly landed roles with the supermarket giant after making an impression at Â鶹´«Ã½’s annual event, which introduces talented graduates to high-profile employers.

A number of Â鶹´«Ã½ graduates were then invited to an assessment day at the Sainsbury’s store support centre in Coventry, where they learned about the company’s work culture, had their problem-solving skills put to the test and underwent individual interviews.

Thomas, Sailesh and Dan were offered roles as associate software engineers and they now work in the team that develops applications and services for in-store colleagues.

graduate Sailesh is enjoying putting the knowledge he gained on his course into practice.

The 22-year-old from Dudley said: “The culture at Sainsbury’s has rapidly improved my confidence and skills.

“I have already taken part in external training courses for technologies such as AWS and React. This has been important for my development and for getting to know others in the Sainsbury's group.

“My degree prepared me extremely well as it provided me with key knowledge on development methodologies like Agile and I am using technologies such as SQL in my current role.”

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Dan, a graduate, praised the support he received from Â鶹´«Ã½ in securing his role.

“If it wasn't for Â鶹´«Ã½ I would never have thought of applying to Sainsbury’s, so I'm ecstatic that I was invited to the networking day because it enabled me to land such a fantastic job,” said the 23-year-old from Coventry.

“Â鶹´«Ã½ has also invited me back to give a guest lecture about my time at Sainsbury’s. One thing I will stress is that my course covered everything I needed to know, to be able to jump right into this role after graduation.”

Thomas, also a graduate, believes that doing a year-long work placement gave him an edge on the assessment day.

Thanks to support from - a programme aimed at giving students the necessary skills and qualities that employers look for - Thomas secured a job as a junior software developer with a Leicester-based web design company before completing the final year of his degree.

The 23-year-old from Leicester said: “The placement year prepared me for both my final year and role at Sainsbury's.

“It cemented what I had already been taught and improved my final-year work ethic. It also boosted my confidence to know that the work I was doing was being used by paying clients.”

Scott Wormleighton, an employer engagement co-ordinator at Â鶹´«Ã½, said: “We are committed to supporting our graduates into work and hosting networking events can be a valuable way of kick-starting their careers.

“In this case, we arranged and paid for a coach to take them to the assessment day in Coventry and provided overnight accommodation for those travelling from outside of Leicester.

“We are now working closely with Sainsbury’s and a number of other organisations to plan ahead and help them recruit for the coming academic year.”