UKESF boosts scholarships, but needs more support

Indro Mukerjee, chair of the UKESF's Strategic Advisory Board and ceo of Plastic Logic, pictured, said: "The feedback from everyone participating has been very positive indeed and it's encouraging to see that an increasing number of companies recognise the need to collaborate in grassroots support through programmes such as UKESF. "Our next challenge is to engage more of the electronic systems community and we are now calling on all firms with electronics graduate interests to be a part of the UKESF national programme." One of the latest companies to support UKESF is Wolfson Electronics. Chief technology officer Peter Frith said: "We are delighted to be joining the UKESF scholarship programme this year, through which we are helping maintain the UK's strong technology and engineering sector, and developing and nurturing key skills necessary for a dynamic and world class business." Nick Salter, vp of program management for CSR, a UKESF founder, said: "Feedback from the scholars was that they found the placements useful, with opportunities to put existing learning to real use, and to learn some completely new skills – and, of course, to see what is it like working and contributing in a fast moving industry." While the additional funding is welcomed, UKESF still has some way to go before meeting its target of offering 160 scholarships per year by 2014.