Leading Leicester firm supports city’s students

A top UK provider of advanced geospatial and hybrid intelligence is helping to develop Leicester’s brightest young talent.

Hybrid Geospatial is a long-time supporter of the University of Leicester’s £100 million science and innovation park, Space Park Leicester, and has recently provided a 12-month work placement for Steve Kelsall, who is studying for a Master’s degree in Data Analysis for Business Intelligence at the university.

Hybrid Geospatial Director Paul Gray said: “On commercial projects you can’t always take the time to focus in on all of the areas you’d like to. So, for us this placement was a great opportunity to work with Steve to explore challenges, look at options and solve technical issues and ways for working that mean we are well placed to move forward.

“We’d definitely encourage other firms to provide placements to Leicester students. Companies need to be able to put collaboration time in to optimise the outputs but the ability to dedicate resource to focus on solving challenges and coming up with innovations makes it very worthwhile.”

During the placement Steve supported a range of initiatives, including helping to produce an intelligence platform architecture and systems design, undertaking a technology review and developing a set of data analysis demonstrators to profile the use of data and technologies and respond to real life needs and requirements. 

Hybrid Geospatial also introduced Steve to a series of data and technologies that he had not previously used, including geographic data type, Earth Observation data, Geographic Information Systems and Commercial Off The Shelf business intelligence tools such as PowerBI and QLIK Sense.

Steve said: “I enjoyed the placement thoroughly and I received great support from the director of the company.

“I wasn’t sure what career path I wanted to follow before starting my Master’s but after finishing this placement I’m definitely interested in careers involving data analytics and visualisations. 

“This year in industry has taught me several different useful practices and forms of knowledge for being in the workplace and I feel it will help me to achieve my career goals.”

Paul added: “In our small way we’ve been a supporter of Space Park Leicester since its early days, and indeed we’re located in Leicester Space City at Dock Leicester.  

“Knowing Space Park Leicester is a key part of the University of Leicester, and that the National Centre for Earth Observation is also located there, means there’s a steady stream of well-trained graduates with geospatial and earth observation skills coming though, as well as experts on site and available locally. 

“This all bodes very well for the future build-up of specialist companies in this part of Leicester and the East Midlands generally.  As a local company it’s good knowing we don’t need to go far to find useful skills, resources and support going forward.”

Frazer Stark, of the University of Leicester’s Careers and Employability Service, said: "Engaging with local businesses allows our students to apply their learning in real-world settings, significantly enhancing both their skills and their employability. 

“It’s a win-win scenario for both the student and employer. Steve’s speculative application approach and on-placement achievements fantastically represent the robustness and quality of University of Leicester students."

• Firms which are interested in offering placements to students connected with the University of Leicester and Space Park Leicester should contact Frazer.Stark@leicester.ac.uk or placements@le.ac.uk