Business Champions, a live business competition run jointly by PwC and national student organisation, Bright Futures, helps proactive university students build and run a business to ultimately create profits, which went to the charity, the School for Social Entrepreneurs.
The teams, of between two and four students, were given £250 of seed funding each and a PwC mentor to help them with their business planning and to develop their commercial awareness.
Matt Manders and Baran Ceylan, two first year undergraduates from Bath University, formed the winning team, BC&M technologies which created a pet ID tag business.
The runners up from Exeter University, formed the company Ex-Bay. They created an online shopping website for students to buy and sell a wide range of goods such as sports equipment and tickets. The four team members won a place on the firm's three-day summer academy.
Simon Reichwald, director, Bright Futures, said: "Business Champions was created to give students the opportunity to improve their commercial awareness in a real, live business competition. It gives students a totally different way of securing a job and an opportunity to prove their motivation and initiative, while letting prospective employers see their employability skills first-hand. It is a massive belief of mine that there are smarter ways of recruiting top talent than the traditional application process.
"The level of detail, planning and execution the winning teams displayed proves there are some tremendously talented students out there. They were phenomenal in what they achieved."
Sonja Stockton, PwC director of recruitment, said: "This provides a real platform for students to learn, develop and hone business and commercial skills whilst still at university. Having direct access to the skills and talents of PwC staff gives students a unique opportunity to gain mentoring from a top employer, the forum to show their skills and the chance to ensure they stand out to secure a job on graduation.
"It's a sustainable approach to developing the employability of students and benefits UK plc and charity."
