Ali takes a STEP to success

University of Teesside student Ali Zaidi has been named as one of the UK’s most enterprising students to take part in a national scheme.

Ali, 26, from London, is in the third year of a BSc (Hons) Web Development degree. He took part in the STEP programme which places promising students with local firms to handle a specific project using the skills learned on their course. The student gains relevant work experience and a salary, while the firm receives specialist assistance.

Ali spent the summer working with Visualsoft UK Ltd, a Middlesbrough-based online development and marketing company. Visualsoft creates websites for clients that can handle e-commerce and stock control issues, as well as making sure websites are recognised by search engines. The company, which employs several University of Teesside graduates, also offers online training courses.

Ali created a search engine optimisation system, which restructures websites so that any search engine will find the site easier to locate. This can involve the creation of thousands, or even millions, of web pages which can be independently scanned by search engines, so the site can be located quicker and easier.

Ali said: “I decided I wanted to go to university after working in a few jobs after school. I looked at a few universities which taught web development, and Teesside’s was the best course. As well as having a compulsory year in an industrial placement, it also seemed to be very well equipped and well recognised.

“I joined the STEP scheme after spending my year placement with a local firm. I was looking for a new challenge and the opportunity to develop new skills - Visualsoft offered both. Creating a search engine optimisation system was a big project because you have to make as much of a website searchable as possible. It’s like having 100 adverts in the Yellow Pages for each of the products you offer instead of one for the entire business – people will have a much better chance of finding you.”

Dean Benson, a director of Visualsoft, said: "We wanted someone who could handle a challenge and be innovative. We had the vision for the search engine optimisation system, but we needed someone who could run with it and get it in place. Ali worked really hard and created a fantastic system.

"We've now sold the system to some external clients for around £60,000 and our own educational courses have benefited by being easier to find. We are confident that within a year, we will see an extra £750,000 in business coming our way thanks to the project that Ali contributed towards."

Ali won the first prizes for the most enterprising Student 2005 Awards for the Tees Valley and the North East region and came second in the national competition. Ali said: "I was surprised to win the local and regional awards and the national prize giving event was a lot of fun.  It was a high profile ceremony with lots of high ranking people from the business world attending and was very exciting. It would have been nice to come first, but rather than being negative I will use my UK runner up award to sell myself and create more opportunities for my career. I'd recommend STEP to any student – I learnt a lot from it and I'm sure others would as well." After graduating in 2006, Ali is considering work in a large web or IT consultancy or even starting his own business.

Students or businesses who wish to find out more about the STEP scheme, which is sponsored by Shell and operated at Universities across the UK, can call Margaret Beevers at the University of Teesside on 01642 384328 or email: m.beevers@tees.ac.uk.

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