The University of Gloucestershire was the fitting venue for this year’s Bright Futures national ‘Time
for Change’ event and awards ceremony.
The event which took place on 20th June was the first to be held under the re-branded name of Bright Futures and brought together over 100 delegates comprising of student committees, corporate sponsors and careers advisors from across the UK.
Bright Futures is a student-led society, focused on helping students maximise their employability skills & make more informed, and this better, career choices through year-round collaboration with industry.
Started back in 1977 by a group of Cambridge students, the business was formerly known as Student Industrial Society (SIS).
Bright Futures is now playing an increasingly important role in providing the UK’s leading organisations with a powerful
tool to target, quickly and cost effectively, the most work-focused and exceptional students & graduates.
The growing list of more than 40 corporate members now includes Barclays Bank, Ernst & Young, GlaxoSmithKline, L’Oreal, Meltwater News, Tescos, Npower, Allen & Overy and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
This year’s event proved to be a fantastic networking opportunity and the perfect environment for students to see and experience that they are part of a truly national organisation.
Present at the event were student committees from 23 of the 28 universities across the UK at which Bright Futures have a student society, and provided an excellent opportunity for 2008/9 committees to meet a number of corporate sponsors with whom they would be working next year.
The twenty corporate sponsors who attended were able to see for themselves the outstanding quality of the Bright Futures students.
Quotes from attending corporate sponsors include:
“Extremely ‘bright’, proactive and career focused. They were good at getting involved in the more interactive elements of the sessions and asking questions. They were also very welcoming and keen to network.” KPMG
“A very refreshing change from the usual student events I attend. The students were very alert and attentive and were genuinely interested in the presentations that were discussed and the networking that was offered.” Shell STEP
Awards were won by:
Bright Futures at Birmingham for Best Local Event (Sponsored
by Future Track)
Bright Futures at London Southbank for Fastest Growing Society
(Sponsored by Cap Gemini)
Bright Futures at Lancaster for Best Newcomer (Sponsored by
Enterprise Rent a Car)
Bright Futures at Aston for Committee of the Year (Sponsored by GCHQ)
Gareth Hall from Bright Futures at Reading won President of the Year, an award sponsored by OnTrack International.
Gareth said:
“I am honoured to have received this award, and proud that my efforts, as well as those of my committee have been rewarded. Being part of a Bright Futures society has contributed more to my career prospects than any club could have done. The event was fantastic with many excellent workshops that were perfect for incoming committee members.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night and the best indicator of the quality of the Bright Futures students was the request to turn down the music so that they could keep networking late into the night, and the fact that the bar lost money!
