My Experience In The IDeA Cadetship

I’ve been putting off writing this particular article for too long. The idea of writing about the cadetship is what inspired me to create this entire blog in the first place. And right now I’m not in the mood to do any research or deep thinking but I do want to put some words on a page. This article is a positive review of my degree, the UTS IDeA cadetship that I am currently in the 3rd year of. The degree is one of kind in Australia and I was a part of the first intake starting in Feb 2023, scheduled to graduate in Nov 2026. Opinions on this non-traditional course of study are highly polarized. I have met both strong proponents of the degree and people that oppose it and are openly critical of it. Let me lay out all the facts before making my recommendation, as someone that knows the ins and outs of the degree better than almost anyone else. A disclaimer: based on the employer experiences may vary from cadet to cadet. To keep the focus on the experience rather than the organization, I’ve chosen not to name my employer.

What Is the IDeA Cadetship and Why Is It Special?

IDeA stands for “Industry Degree Academy”, a 4 year degree available at UTS. It is based on the standard computer science degree and it is a CS degree in the sense that all IDeA cadets graduate with a bachelor of CS. However, the defining feature of the degree is the fact that students work full time in the industry while studying (hence the name). This makes the degree, most of the time, not feel like a university degree at all but like a full time job (which it is) with study on the side. Practically the way this works is that us cadets work during the day, go to class from 5-9pm and complete course content after work or on weekends. The fact that full time employment is guaranteed and required and that uni fees are paid for is what makes this degree technically a cadetship- these criteria are typical of the cadetship model of study. Cadetships are almost exclusively available in the fields of Accounting/Finance and less commonly in Defence. The IDeA cadetship is the first of its kind in the field of computer science and a gamechanger in that regard. CS-related jobs are already competitive, so to have industry partners offering paid positions to students is exceptional. Another reason a CS cadetship is completely different to a traditional finance one is that CS roles are highly technical. For example, software engineering requires not just the math and coding prerequisites but usually experience and familiarity with various technologies (e.g. networking, databases, security). The IDeA is offered to students leaving highschool and entering university with the promise to train students in the workplace as they complete their degrees at UTS, despite a large number of incoming students having very limited tech experience. Non-CS cadetships might wait until second year/later before work commences or otherwise be more selective in the appliation process on the basis of technical competence, but one of the core tenets of IDeA is the idea that anyone can get into tech if they are eager to learn, regardless of experience.

Earn a Salary While You Study

The key selling point for cadetships is you get paid while you study. This can be a huge enabler for young people. It can help them move out at 18 potentially relocating from different states/rural areas to Sydney, or just make them more independent. For students that remain with their family, a majority of that money can be invested or go into savings, giving them a leg up financially, or even allowing them to invest in real estate at a young age. While every company offers different base rates, mine was 60k + 18k in shares. My company does an annual salary review after which total package value can go up by up to ~20% depending on performance (this changes year by year anyway so no use quoting precise figures). The reason for this massive jump is that the 60k is quite a low base rate for SWEs. While it is justified by the fact the company is initially investing more in the student than it is getting back, the pay raises are largely to compensate for this. The goal is to reach a competitive SWE salary by graduation after which the pay raises will go down in size.

In addition, employers tend to cover university fees as well. My employer offers full reimbursement for any subjects where I score above 70% (a distinction, or ‘D’) with an additional $250 bonus for any subjects where I score above 85% (a high distinction, or ‘HD’). In this case they also cover required reading materials, but I am yet to see required textbooks in any subjects.

Years of Experience Over Other Candidates

After onboarding/completing some preliminary training, cadets become a “real” part of the company in that they are not interns but proper employee and are treated as such by colleagues. Cadets have the same privileges and responsibilities as employees and there is no notion of a ‘return’ offer because the position is permanent (in most cases- I have heard of certain companies not giving full time permanent contracts to the cadets).

By the time cadets graduate, they have 4 years of experience, 3 years of which would be “real” years as productive employees comparable to non-cadet SWEs (the first year is sort of a training year). Firstly, these make university much easier, especially in the generic computer related first and second year subjects. Learning database principles like normalization and ERDs while using/implementing them at the same time in a professional context is incredibly powerful educationally and it is patterns like that that motivated the creation of this degree in the first place.

Secondly, regardless of if cadets stay with the employer or leave after graduating, the experience puts them in a whole new category of “experienced junior” career-wise rather than “entry level” which changes the type of jobs they can apply for dramatically. A year after graduating, cadets will have 5 years of experience while typical non-cadets will have 1 (and that’s if they are prompt, skilled and/or lucky). A cadet’s career trajectory is permanently altered and their career brought forward by years. And although it is not an ideal situation, if a student were not a good match for CS they would find out much earlier and be able to adjust course accordingly rather than commit to the full degree, find a job and deal with the psychological effects of the sunk cost (and I know people both in and out of the cadetship that have had that experience).

The networking and learning opportunities are also excellent, as I have made friends with experienced SWEs, both within and outside my team. I sit next to different people every day and they constantly teach me and help me with more complex work I struggle with or might take a long time to complete.

Work Puts Things Into Perspective

This one is applicable to working anywhere in industry while in uni as opposed to IDeA specifically but having an office job has seriously changed my outlook on so many things in life, particularly uni. Despite it only being my first job and me being very junior I have observed a few things. For example, I don’t get stressed about the idea of working in an office some day in the future since I’m doing it now. It doesn’t seem like an impossible goal that only “real” adults or tech geniuses can do, I can and do do it myself. Whenever the university says “you need to learn/have XYZ for when you get a job” I have the experience to critically evaluate that statement. Most of the time it is an exaggeration, or learnable/attainable on demand.

I have always had decent communication skills but working has improved my communication and taught me in practice examples of good and bad communication. One time me and my friend were talking about how to politely say no over text, and they suggested saying “eh maybe” to mean no. It shocked me how bad of a way that is to respond to a yes/no question, how useless it is to the asker that now has to literally ask again, and how unprofessional it looks. And yet, his answer was realistic because people really do talk that way in the real world. And it frustrates me. There is a way to speak, a way to be accountable and to hold other people accountable. If you want something done, make sure it is in writing (because if people just say it will happen, it won’t). Always have an agenda, don’t have meetings for the sake of meetings. How to organise myself and a team, how to roadmap across different scales like years, months, and weeks, the politics of asking for help from someone that doesn’t necessarily owe you anything.

In terms of uni, all of a sudden deadlines are pretty trivial. A 5% quiz is just a recommendation. One time I had to choose between finishing a 30% report the day before it was due and sleeping so I could focus at work the next day. It took about 10 seconds of deliberation before I shut down my laptop and got up to brush my teeth. All that work and suffering and stress just to possibly scrape a HD for what, a tiny bonus? I’d rather just take one less day off work to “make it back”, screw the assignment. My tutor won’t care, the marker won’t care, the coordinator won’t care- none of them even know my name or will remember my shitty report 20 seconds after they fail it. The progression is supposed to go: “study hard and do well to use my great marks to do a job” but since I’m approaching the whole thing “backwards” already by having a job, the regular incentive to do well and punishment for doing poorly has no effect on me. My choosing work over uni in that moment I merely cut out the middleman. I still want to get my 70% for a reimbursement but the barrier to get that rather than an 85-95 is achievable without stress for most subjects.

A Far More Flexible Degree

Both the IDeA and CS degree at UTS change every year. After doing some quick googling I’m actually surprised by how much has chanegd across the years from 2023, to 2024, to 2025 and finally to 2026- despite having been generally tracking the changes. You can find the latest information here. My information is generally accurate but might combine some years

This section may heavily change from employer to employer, as different employers negotiate different “deals” with the university based on the type of work cadets do

Compared to a standard UTS CS degree, the IDeA cadetship is twice as flexible. First note that in both cases you are offered no free electives for subjects from other faculties such as Photography or Japanese. The standard degree, “Bachelor of Computing Science”, is pretty uncompromising. You need to complete 24 subjects (144 credits) to graduate. 8 are mandatory under ‘Core IT’. 8 are mandatory under ‘Core Computer Science’ (with some minor flexibility such as the option of Math 1 and Math 2 or Math 1 and DDD). The remaining 8 fall under a major (examples of CS majors include AI, cybersecurity, enterprise, math) and from major to major you may be required to do a certain number of mandatory subjects and select the remaining ones to make 8 from a pool specific to that major. For example, the AI major might have 4 mandatory AI subjects and allow a student to choose the remaining 4 from 8 more advanced AI subjects to be awarded the major.

IDeA stipulates your major must be Enterprise Software Development. However, this is only a technicality. Not only do they waive a large number of would-be mandatory enterprise subjects but they waive several “standard” CS subjects too! Within the enterprise major subjects like Application Development with Dotnet and Advanced Software Development become mandatory that were not previously in generic CS. But only a fraction of the “mandatory” enterprise major subjects are actually mandatory. The standard CS enterprise major has something like 4 mandatory subjects and 4 optional ones. IDeA enterprise mandates you only take 1-2. Not only does this mean there is greater flexibility within enterprise, but the remaining subjects don’t even have to come from the enterprise pool at all!

Those entire remaining subjects can come from anything from the broader pool of CS electives from any major- which is anything under IT or math, with some business. This makes it practically as good as any major you could want. And to top it off, IDeA actually waives certain ‘core’ subjects which are replaced with yet more generic CS electives offering even greater flexibility. These are subjects such as Communication for IT Professionals and Math 1/Math 2 (IDeA replaces the 2 subject combo with just Design, Data and Decisions). All in all there are something like 7 electives offered which is a huge leg up the generic CS degree for anyone that wants the flexibility to take the subjects they want, provided they are ok conceding the major that goes on the certificate.

As a final bonus, a few select subjects such as Introduction to Software Development, Business Requirements Modelling and even Programming 1 are straight up credited without having to do any content as the subject matter or equivalent is covered at work.

Custom Timetable

Adding to the previous point, IDeA cadets also have exclusive classes made available to suit our timetable. Our recommended workload is 2 subjects a semester (spring and autumn), one in winter (sometimes) and one in summer, which adding in the credited subjects works out to 6 subjects a year. This is 3/4 of a full time study load and as such it takes 4/3 the duration of a standard degree. Practically no subjects are offered in winter and very few are offered in summer, mostly the mathsy ones. IDeA creates offerings during these times to support us cadets meeting our study schedule. For example, creating a class for Application Development in Dotnet in winter last year (a class not normally offered at this time) or Advanced Algorithms this summer (also not normally offered at this time). UTS is also very accommodating regarding timetables within subjects, often adding extra evening labs for popular subjects after work if the offered times are not great.

This point also has downsides- it is heavily encouraged cadets conform to the schedule, and if a cadet has other plans such as taking 3 weeks off in winter to travel they fall behind. I personally don’t see this as an issue as there are always chances to ‘catch up’ by overloading (3 subjects a semester instead of 2), and otherwise extending the degree is usually accepted with no issues from both the employer and UTS’s side.

Employers Accept That We Are Students

This is surely specific to my place of employment but at one point in time our employer would organise to have our cohort of cadets recieve tutoring during the work day for discrete math, a subject many students struggled with. While we finished that subject literally years ago, the fact that my workplace cared enough to actually plan that was meaningful as it showed symbolically that any ongoing issues/struggles were not persistent and were all fixable.

The academic assistance has long since ceased but employees with backgrounds in academia are always willing to help and my team continues to support my study by allowing me to take a day off work per week during semester to attend class. I am not currently making use of this offer but I have in the past during more difficult semesters and it is good to know it is always there until I graduate.

The Power Of Unity

At the time of writing I have, except for one subject, exclusively gotten HDs and cruised through my degree while still learning plenty. My cadet friends have had similar experiences. The only reason this is possible is because there are so many of us that took classes together for years, having only stopped recently. We progressed through our degree as a unit, both the broader group of cadets that worked at my company and my tight knit group of 9 friends. Much like school I have a reason to interact with these people frequently and we’re all kind of similar in terms of interests. For months we would hang out at the office together, get lunch daily and entertain each other during functions and events. Now we’ve grown less dependent on each other but still talk to each other multiple times a week in person and we hang out at uni and outside work. These days I hear more and more about the loneliness epidemic and how hard it is to find a group of uni friends. Not only do I have one thanks to IDeA (we would never have become such good friends if we weren’t stuck in the same place) but I am confident even if we might not work together in the future we will remain friends. Here are some other ways being part of a group has helped me:

• Cadets, not just my friends but any cadets, have been “vetted” by the company and are a good source of teammates in group subjects. Of which there are too many, but that is another issue for another day. I know all cadets must meet a minimum standard technically, and they are accountable since I’ll see them again.
• I can choose to go into subjects with my friends since we’re all doing the same major and working to the same timetable. Maybe because I want to be in a group with them, or maybe I just want to not be lonely and have to try to talk to some antisocial basement-dwelling CS students. I’ve observed that if I enroll into the same subject/classes as my entire group we appear a bit cliquey since noone else talks and we yap (respectfully and quietly) non-stop. But it doesn’t hurt anyone so it never bothered me. Unlike at work, there is no encouragement/reward to reach out to strangers at uni and everyone is responsible for making their own friends. Personally, I’m more than happy to hang out with anyone that wants to. This is getting off topic…
• We can structure our hangouts outside of work around convenient times, such as when a round of exams has finished.
• We can study/work on assignments together. Honestly a lifesaver. Just having another person to talk to and ask “does this assignment rubric make sense”/”what does XYZ mean” to makes my life so much easier. I have a friend who is super organised and on top of deadlines and sometimes I leech off his timetable and try to stick to it myself. I have another friend who is a database expert, another friend with an interest in RTOS, many people that have completed the subject “Cybersecurity” already who know the structure and difficulty of the exams for when I do it. I myself am “the maths guy” and have helped people out when I am able to.
• The emotional support system of people who are in the same position as you, who can hear about your struggles and give you good advice. We complain about workloads to each other, we complain about mistakes we made at uni, we hear each other out. Psychologically, having friends “similar” to ourselves rather than just middle aged SWEs to talk to is both a good source of counsel and just improves my mental health generally.
• The fact that we are a big group gives us leverage both at work and uni, any individual complaints are magnified tenfold and our needs are more likely to be looked after. For example, in the case of needing an extra class or organising to expedite an e-Request.

Why You Should Apply

You should apply for the cadetship if you:

• Currently enjoy a field that is offered by the cadetship (currently just software development and cybersecurity I believe) and know you want to go into that field
• Are eager to work a full work week, to climb the corporate ladder, or to kick start your career- and don’t mind being busy or having deadlines or pressure all the time (these come from uni)
• Want to make money/be financially independent

Why You Should Not Apply

You should not apply for the cadetship if you:

• Value your time very highly or want to spend it doing young person things like travelling or partying
• Can’t see yourself working in this field, or working an office job in general- what’s the point in all this if you don’t even enjoy where you end up?
• Are very experienced/confident in your abilities: the cadetship is a boost and if you don’t need it you might be better off freelancing for a couple of years and getting a highly competitive place at a top tech company as a graduate

Conclusion

I think that the pros list above applies to both me when I started my degree and me now better than the cons list ever has. I confidently accepted the offer and while I have had multiple “grass is always greener” moments I ultimately am happy with the decision I made and I think if you are similar to me you will prefer it too. If you have any questions either about the degree in general or my company which I have mysteriously kept from mentioning the entire article find me in person and ask! I could talk forever about any of the points above and would love to offer guidance to anyone struggling to make a decision.