Build On ASEAN 2021: Versent mentors young IT achievers

Last week, motivated teenagers from around the ASEAN region put their heads together to solve complex digital puzzles. No, they weren’t competing in an e-sports computer game competition; these young people were showing off their skills in building enterprise computing systems.  

Build On ASEAN is an event hosted by AWS (Amazon Web Services) that brings together school students in teams to solve complex, real-world IT challenges. Each team partners with an expert industry mentor to help them hone their skills and plan their projects.  

This year, Versent experts were on deck, working with the young teams as mentors.   

“On Friday, each team spent about five hours with real-world corporate representatives who explained the solutions their companies needed. From then on, the work of these highschool aged students was amazing,” said Jordan Windebank, one of the Versent mentors participating in Build On. “Most of the young people had no prior exposure to AWS tools or architectures. It was so impressive seeing the way they learned. As mentors, we could just point them in the right direction, answer their questions, and their enthusiasm and intelligence did the rest. I can remember working with digital teams ten years ago who didn’t move as quickly as these kids. There seems to be a quantum leap happening in IT ability with this generation.”  

Another Versent mentor at Build On, Richard Kang, said “In less than three weeks, the teams of students had built functional enterprise-level IT systems. That was quite remarkable. One team trained a machine learning AI and created a working face mask compliance monitoring system. Another young team developed a carbon emissions tracking system using blockchain technology. They also coupled it with an integrated mobile device platform with a full back and front end.”  

Build On ASEAN 2021 has been a great opportunity for Versent to strengthen its ties with the broader Asian region. With a busy office already in Singapore, and a need to hire more accomplished AWS practitioners, supporting mentoring events like Build On is a vital plank of Versent’s growth and cultural efforts.    

“We want to help young people across the region grow into exciting careers where they can make the most of their IT skills,” commented Richard Kang. “Build On is all about giving them an opportunity to use pro-level tools and see what it’s like to work on real-world projects.”  

Build On helps young people develop new IT skills and find pathways into IT careers. Participants get a chance to learn more about the fundamentals of cloud computing using AWS technology. Build On ASEAN was first hosted in Singapore and Malaysia in 2019 and has now expanded to the rest of ASEAN: Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar, and Vietnam.   

If you’re looking for your next career opportunity, why not get in touch with Versent? We’re always looking for creative, motivated people to join our team.