Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Students compete to help Hermes create the next big delivery solution
The five teams took part in a competition run by the Leeds Beckett Employability Team and Hermes, where participants were asked to shape the future of the parcels sector by bringing innovative ideas to life and attempt to create the next big delivery solution. As well as battling each other the Leeds Beckett teams competed with a team from the Hermes Innovation Lab.
Debbie Adams, Head of Employee Engagement at Leeds Beckett, explained what the event achieves: “Bringing employers onto campus creates fantastic opportunities for our students. We carry out many events aimed at employability from job fairs to exciting and innovative days like this.
“We want students to understand the world of work and solving business problems by working together. We put the teams together from different disciplines including business and computing so the students are working with people they wouldn’t normally; again learning how it is in the working world.
Events like this are great on a student’s CV and really make them stand out from the crowd.”
Some of the students from the uniquely named ‘Cheeky Intelligence Corporation’ team commented on how it was a great opportunity for team work and how an event like this is good for personal development and can help them find a job. One said it gives hands-on experience working towards the same goal and if Hermes likes the idea you might get a job.
Zoe McClelland, Head of Business Strategy, Operations and Enterprise at Leeds Beckett, said: “One of the key priorities for Leeds Business School is the employability of our students. This is a fantastic opportunity to engage with an organisation such as Hermes to put into practice what they’ve learned. It’s also a networking opportunity to meet professionals who may well be recruiting.
“We’re very grateful to the organisations, like Hermes, that take time out to work with our students.”
David Turner, Head of Innovation at Hermes, said: “Taking part in events like this gives us access to students who are thinking outside the box. They’re not constrained and we see some ideas that we would never have thought of. It’s a good chance for students to meet us and show us some of their great ideas.
“It’s impressive to see how quickly the teams can bring an idea together – something that would potentially cost a business millions of pounds.
“We’re always recruiting and will provide start-up funding if we see an idea with real potential and look at sponsoring a team to take that idea forward.”
At the end of the day students faced a judging panel which included staff from Leeds Beckett, Hermes and Google. The winning team was Team 404, The Wolf Hack were runners-up with 404 Brain Not Found finishing in third place.