TheEmployable always loves to hear of ‘good news’ employment stories. So we were glad to hear that our friends over at Adzuna, had been running a “Graduate of the Year” competition for the first time this year, that saw 1000s of entrants from over 100 UK universities, fighting it out for the illustrious title.
Well, the results are now in, and with the votes cast totaling over 100,000 the grand prize has been won by Leo Anthias, a 22-year-old English & Modern History Graduate. Leo beat off thousands of Britain’s brightest graduates and amassed over 7,000 votes from around the country to win the competition which set out to find UK’s finest Academics, Artists, Entrepreneurs, Sportspeople and Social Contributors graduating in 2012.
The grand prize won by Leo equalled £1,000, a CV clinic with a top UK entrepreneur and an internship with investment company Passion Capital.
An intelligent, scrappy graduate entrepreneur, Leo started a number of successful tech and non-tech businesses at university including “Stiff Collar” a vintage clothing company for university balls and an online search engine which helps users find commonly misspelt eBay items. Leo has also been selected by the Number Ten backed “Entrepreneur First Scheme”, a not-for-profit initiative designed to nurture entrepreneurial UK graduates. Leo graduated from St Andrews this summer with a 2:1, illustrating you don’t always need a 1st to stand out from the crowd in a market where over 50 graduates apply for every one vacancy.
Andrew Hunter, Co-Founder of Adzuna said “Leo is a clear example of the exceptional talent graduating from UK universities who we should be supporting straight out of the blocks to build their own businesses. In these financially difficult times, now more than ever, we have to get behind small businesses in the UK and encourage even more graduates to seize the opportunity and join a start up or start their own business.”
Alice Bentinck, COO of Entrepreneur First said “We are delighted that Leo has been named Graduate of the Year. Leo really stood out during the Entrepreneur First selection process as someone with an unusual skill set; he has an arts degree, is technically minded and has great business sense. This made him exactly the kind of graduate that Entrepreneur First wants to encourage to consider a career as an entrepreneur. When Leo starts Entrepreneur First in September, he will have the opportunity to build his own high-growth tech startup with our support and we are definitely excited to see what he creates.”
TheEmployable congratulate Leo for winning the “Graduate of the Year” accolade, and also a big thumbs up must go to Adzuna for running this ‘Graduate of the Year’ competition, at a time when Graduates really need that big break. With over 100,000 votes cast, lets hope that this is one competition that is here to stay.
Discussion
No comments yet.