CGCU launched the Internship Centre this morning in a packed out room. Few had expected the turn out to be as large, or the launch of an unpretentious web site to be so popular. However, this was more than just a web site launch. It was the realisation of a simple idea: to cater for the lack of summer work provision by asking former students to supply them.

Even before the 1pm start, the lunch was over populated, with a count of over 300 students, but a further 150 continued to pour in. Professor Chris Hankin, Dean of City & Guilds College, introduced the Internship Centre and thanked the Union officers for setting it up. He also paid tribute to the C&G College Departments and City & Guilds College Association (CGCA) for their funding of the initiative. CGCU President Dinesh Ganesarajah consequently introduced the web site and future plans for creating a physical centre. He thanked the efforts of past Union Officers as well as the current team led by Sarah Bluhme.

Students use the service simply by logging into the web site using a College username and password, after which a list of employers are presented, to whom students can apply using a covering letter and CV. Almost all of these employers are different to those offered by the Careers Service and Departments, and so increase the number of total opportunities available to students. Many of these employers have not previously offered summer work, and are offering these jobs purely because of the Union's initiative. An employer attending the Launch, Roy Browne from Parkman Ltd, re-iterated this point. In these openings are exclusive to Imperial students.

Mr Ganesarajah reflected on the event afterwards noting, 'the move from social events to academic and welfare style activity in the last two years has been beneficial for all'. The project involved a great deal of effort, from talking to different parts of College to writing to over 2500 employers last summer. The technology side of the website was designated as an extension of the ongoing C&G Active Media Project. Mustafa Arif.uk, Active Leader, said that students 'owed a great deal of gratitude' to Richard Tang, Active's senior developer. He also thanked Etienne Pollard, the ICU DP(F&S) and his team for their 'persistence to resolving security difficulties'. Mr Arif stated that over 500 students had logged into the web site within 4 hours of its launch.