Real World Awards History • Real World

History of the Awards

Now in its eigth year, the Real World Awards competition is designed to celebrate the achievements of outstanding graduates across the UK .
Every year entrants raise the bar in terms of their extra-curricular activities, and we expect 2010 to be no different.

Since the competition’s inception in 2004, Real World has awarded prizes to inspirational students whose achievements have ranged from campaigning for prisoners’ rights, to founding a successful entrepreneurs’ society. This year’s awards, co-hosted by Real World and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, culminated in a glittering ceremony celebrating the most enterprising students from universities across the country

Jointly scooping the much-coveted first prize were Charles Hogg and Tom Webster from Lancaster and Manchester universities respectively. They each took home a well-deserved £2,000 cash prize. In second place was Newcastle University’s Kyle Clarke, who won £1,000.

The finalists impressed the judging panel with their diverse range of enterprising achievements. For example, not only was Tom involved in his university’s rugby club, management society, and the trading and investment society, but also outside university he helped train students at Manchester Grammar School at rugby.

Charles stood out from the crowd thanks to his ‘Ambulances to Mongolia’ project. With generous sponsorship from several leading companies, he drove a fully-equipped, ex-NHS ambulance to Mongolia. Meanwhile, Kyle has started no less than three new businesses during his time at university, inspired by an excellent Business Enterprise Module which he took in his second year.

Talking at the ceremony, Donna Miller, Head of HR at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, said: ‘All our finalists are so different and that’s what made them difficult to judge this year. But it was fun. There’s so much doom and gloom in the world about young people these days but there are some great people doing amazing things and it kind of restores your faith in young people. Well done on all their amazing accomplishments and they should all be proud they made it this far. I hope it’s been a great experience for them and I hope what they have learned through the process will take them far because really the sky is the limit on what they can do.’

In addition to the cash prizes, five students were also awarded internships with Enterprise. With the graduate job market more crowded than ever, it has never been more difficult to land an internship, making the internships invaluable opportunities. Unlike some internships, students hit the ground running with responsibility from Day One at Enterprise. ‘We’ve always been really big on internships because it is very hard to go out as a graduate employer and say “but they don’t have the skills” -- you can’t complain about it if you are not willing to be part of the solution,’ explains Donna Miller. ‘We think by offering internships the interns can take away the skills they need. There is a cost to having interns but we’ve always looked at it as the more interns we have, and the more successful our internship programme is, the higher the conversion rate of interns staying with us after they graduate. So we may spend money today but that’s less money we need to spend in the future.’

Click here to return to the Real World Awards homepage.

New eBook Reveals How to Travel for Free with TEFL!

Announcing launch of Student Personality of the Year, in memory of Anjool Malde

The National Placement & Internship Awards 2010

icould - It just shows what you can do

Real World rewards enterprising spirit

RATE YOUR INTERNSHIP!

EMPOWERING WOMEN

Law volunteers needed!

INSIDE IP

Pizza Frenzy

Register now.