Vault Names the Exelaration Center a Top 10 Internship Program in Annual Rankings

BLACKSBURG, Va., Nov. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Exelaration, home to the innovative experiential technology internship in Blacksburg, VA, today announced that it earned stellar rankings across many categories in the newly-released 2021 Vault Ranking list, including entering the Top 10 in the most prominent list—Top 100 Internships—at no. 7.

Exelaration, which is operated by NextUp Solutions, the Washington, D.C. area's go-to company for Agile training, also scored high marks in a number of specific categories in the highly influential internship ranking program. This includes Best Internships in Training & Mentoring (no. 2), in Software Development (no. 3), Tech & Engineering Internships (no. 3), Intern Quality of Life (no. 4), Diversity (no. 4), Overall Career Development (no. 5), and others.

Among the many categories in which they performed well, Exelaration takes particular pride in its Diversity score, ranking 4th among all internships. Exelaration has been dedicated to maintaining a diverse workforce since its beginning in 2010, maintaining at least a 50/50 female-to-male student ratio, and each cohort is ethnically and geographically diverse and from various courses of study. A strong company culture also led to a high Quality of Life rank (also no. 4); Exelaration interns are paid a fair wage, have limited work hours to ensure they can continue to focus on their studies, and experienced a seamless transition to a virtual internship model in the wake of COVID.

Exelaration improved its ranking from last year in each category, a signal that the year-round professional internship organization (PIO) is continually improving with significant momentum. That means a lot to students searching for a prestigious internship as well as to businesses looking for help completing their technology and software needs. It also confirms the impact of the Exelaration's model and could interest universities in other regions interested in bringing Exelaration Centers to their campuses.

Perhaps best of all, the success of the Exelaration model bodes well for organizations who recognize that a world-class internship program will stem their tech talent deficit, as well as for students who require training to qualify for the "1-3 year experience" roles that routinely go unfilled in the tech industry. "In short," said Steve Cooper, founder and CEO of Exelaration, "the more clients that choose Exelaration to complete their tech projects, the more new software pros we can produce under the guidance of our expert mentors—and that means a better future workforce for us all." As the no. 2 internship in the U.S. for Training & Mentoring, Exelaration's team prides themselves on not only producing world class software for top organizations, but committing the same level of dedication to training their interns in software best practices.

In spring 2020, Exelaration reconfigured 100% of its client engagements to a virtual format without any loss of service. "Due to COVID, many emerging professionals have lost traditional education, internship, and mentoring opportunities," Cooper continued. "Exelaration recognizes that it is more important than ever to continue mentoring students. We've proven that Exelaration alumni outperform their peers in time to promotion, worksite acclimation, and have an 80% higher retention rate. This is thanks to Exelaration mentors teaching them not only the hard developer skills necessary for their career path, but also the soft skills essential to any workplace."

About Exelaration:
Exelaration is where today's software needs and tomorrow's STEM workforce are developed. Their unique model connects undergraduate students with real clients to complete projects under the guidance of expert developers and mentors. The Exelaration Center (XC), located in Blacksburg, addresses the tech talent shortage by focusing on mentorship as much as software delivery; students graduate with years of real experience and the essential workplace skills to be successful from day one. Meanwhile, innovative companies accomplish their technology goals for less with no quality sacrificed. Learn more at https://exelaration.com/.

About NextUp Solutions Inc., parent of Exelaration:
NextUp's offices are located in Arlington, Virginia, and Blacksburg, Virginia. As the Washington area's leading Agile training organization, hundreds of companies have turned to NextUp and its team of Agile experts for training across a variety of frameworks, including Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, and Large-Scale Scrum. Over the past 15 years, the NextUp team of instructors has introduced Agile practices to myriad organizations through training, coaching and assessments.

Media Contact

Mary Eva Tredway, Butin Integrated Communications, +1 4043170731, [email protected]

SOURCE Exelaration