This technology firm has just been judged the UK’s best small undergraduate employer

Edinburgh-based Toshiba Medical Visualisation Systems received the honour from the National Undergraduate Employability Awards earlier this month for the success of its summer internship programme.

The company, which has recently been increasing the number of graduate engineers it employs, designs software for medical scanning devices but also carries out its own long-term research programmes.

‘What makes us stand out is the innovation: we’re doing something interesting, we’re doing life-changing work,’ said the firm’s HR advisor Leeanne Weatherston. ‘It’s helping save people’s lives.’

The firm’s internship programme was recognised for its efforts to provide students with structured development and for assigning them to projects that provide significant learning opportunities and are also important to the business. ‘We’re not just getting them in to do work for the sake of it,’ said Weatherston.

‘An internship is a good route into the company. It gives students the chance to experience working here and we have hired a number of interns. Managers are keen to hold onto a good intern – if there’s a vacancy coming up they might even hold off recruiting until the intern is available.’