Acknowledging achievement is quickly becoming a theme on the blog as today I would like to recognise my Marketing colleague and past flat mate Chris Wickson (pictured far right in the photo), who, along with three of his friends from university (pictured with Chris), was a finalist at the inaugural HSBC Unipreneur of the Year. The award has been set-up to recognise those students and graduates who represent the UK’s newest and brightest breed of budding entrepreneurs rewarding the overall winner with a £20,000 prize to invest into their business.

Chris and co’s progress in the competition was just reward for the success of their service RateMyPlacement, a website (www.ratemyplacement.co.uk) that allows students to post reviews about their experiences on work placement. Work placements play a critical role for university students, providing them the opportunity to spend a year out from their studies to gain practical experience in their chosen industry as part of their degree. The experiences shared on RateMyPlacement allows prospective work placement students to make a more informed decision about where to work so they can focus their energy on applying for roles at companies where they can expect to progress their personal development rather than wasting time surfing the internet and making coffee (a situation that unfortunately seems to occur far too often). Unfortunately, RateMyPlacement did not win the award but they did pretty incredible to make it to the final 5 having competed against over 400 other entries. And Chris got his moment in the limelight, presenting in the final to a panel of judges that included Dragon’s Den own Peter Jones. Of course he also did Tycoon so hey what does he know anyway?!

Well done Chris. Having witnessed first-hand your passion and dedication to your company (while still putting in a high standard of work at Avis) I could say that you fully deserve all the recognition you are getting!