FDM Group’s new partnership with the University of Brighton will help deliver programmers and analysts armed with commercial skills necessary for graduates to kick-start careers in IT, says Sheila Flavell, chief operating officer.

Flavell’s comments came at the formal launch of the partnership which sees some of FDM’s graduates enrolled on an MSc in Applied Computer Science in partnership with the University of Brighton, which will be fully funded by FDM. FDM also announced plans to increase its graduate intake from 2010’s 560 graduates to 1,000 graduates this year.

“We recruit graduates and train them to be fit for purpose for our clients, training them in IT skills. We then employ them and kick-start their IT careers. They are employed as permanent members of staff.

“We can quality control our output. Unlike with a contractor, where you buy the contractor in, you don’t always know what you’re getting. With your own staff, they have been vetted, trained to our standards and passed industry exams. We know what the client is getting so it is a much safer bet and we buy loyalty as well, of course.”