STEP stands for the Shell Technology Enterprise Programme but placements are arranged for students with technological, business and marketing skills.

The advantages to local SMEs include obtaining a skilled worker able to devote his or her talents to a particular project for eight weeks. STEP is run as a competition, with one of about 20 students placed in the Greenwich, Croydon, Bromley and Orpington area being nominated as the most enterprising student and going on to compete at regional and, perhaps, national level.

In previous years, Abacus Communications, which is the STEP agency for south-east London, has placed students in a variety of jobs. These include marketing loft ladders, preparing a lottery bid for a leisure complex, preparing a website, working on databases in an electro-optics laboratory and developing a hazardous chemicals labelling system.

Last year, the winning student in south-east London, Kelly Fisher, went on to the STEP National Finals.

The students are paid £140 per week but some sponsorship may be available to assist SMEs with these payments. Existing sponsors include Skillswork and the Nat West Bank, which has provided local prizes for the last five years.

For more details call 01892 531830 or www.abacuscom.co.uk