Sunderland’s tombola hoping for a full house of new recruits

The Sunderland company has joined forces with colleges and Sunderland University to offer a brand-new degree apprenticeship programme.

Tombola has partnered with Gateshead, Sunderland and Newcastle Colleges to identify talented technology apprentices, and teamed up with University of Sunderland to deliver the three-year degree level programme.

Debra Ballantyne, Head of People at tombola, said: “Apprenticeship degrees are a fantastic way for creative tech companies like tombola to identify talented young people and offer them a unique and incredible on the job training opportunity.

“We recently invited ten students each from Gateshead, Sunderland and Newcastle to spend a week in tombola as part of an innovative and interactive selection process.

“Even those students who were unsuccessful on this occasion gained a valuable insight and opportunity of work experience.

“The hopeful applicants were challenged to design a new online game in just four days and then present this to tombola’s game developers on the final day.

“The game development and final pitch process gave all candidates a unique opportunity to be a part of life at tombola.

“The level of game design/development and presentation skills of the students we met was really impressive and wowed everyone at tombola. “Given most of the students were just 18-21 years old, they were incredibly confident and the standard of what they produced was very high.

“All applicants had completed a gaming or computing course with one of our partner colleges and already had a basic understanding of gaming and design.

“But they were selected to take part in our week-long selection process because of behavioural traits - how they think and what makes them different.

Tombola is selecting students to begin its degree apprenticeship. Students will spend the equivalent of one day a week at the university and four days at tombola.