Admissions idea clinches prize for business student (From Worcester News)

Admissions idea clinches prize for business student

9:44am Tuesday 26th January 2010 in

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ENTREPRENEURIAL students have impressed a panel of experts with a range of innovative ideas.

University of Worcester students were invited to take part in Bizcom, a business ideas competition, which allows aspiring businessminded students to submit and pitch a business proposal to a panel of judges.

Worcester Business School student Jaroslaw Szymaniak won the £1,000 first prize for his Edu-Blossom – a business that offers help to foreign students in getting admission to British universities that is accessed online at edublossom.edu.pl.

He said: “As a budding entrepreneur, I want to learn a great deal from people who have business experience and the competition was a great opportunity to do so.

“I am last year’s runner-up and this year’s winner, which means a lot to me and gives the power and confidence in developing all my business ideas.”

The judging panel included Judi Brazkiewicz, vice-chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Worcestershire; Caron Brisley, owner and designer of The Bank; Howard Skerry, head of business development at the University of Worcester; and Neil Westwood, managing director of Magic Whiteboard, a Worcester firm that was successful on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den programme. Ms Brazkiewicz, who presented Jaroslaw with the trophy sponsored by FSB Herefordshire and Worcestershire, said: “The standard of the finalists was impressively high and led to a very closely debated result with the judges caught between two particularly strong entries.

“Ultimately, all agreed that the final winner was the most likely to benefit from the award to move forward with their business idea.”

The University of Worcester has been running the Bizcom competition for five years. Its enterprise manager Katherine Jones said: “The University of Worcester is producing talented young entrepreneurs through its enterprise and employability- related activities.

“Three of the finalists are also enrolled on the student placement for Entrepreneurs in Education programme at the university, a regional programme that enables students to start their own businesses alongside their educational studies.

They also regularly take part in additional activities such as enterprise and employability workshops, and WIN (Worcester Ideas Network) and the universities student enterprise society.

“These extra-curricular activities have undoubtedly enhanced their enterprise skills and will be of immense value to them when they complete their studies.”