Student to sit on board of directors

IT services provider 2e2 is offering a Generation Y' student the opportunity to sit alongside a board of directors for a summer and have a year's tuition fees paid.

The 2e2 Newbury Apprentice Competition' is for full-time students between 17 and 19 years of age in Newbury and is aimed at recognising the new consumer technologies that youngsters use at this age range, such as texting, social networking and instant messaging.

2e2 said that the winner would play a big part in creating and presenting innovative ideas which it hopes will improve productivity of the workforce. It was also with an eye to working with the best talent in the future, many of which would be Generation Y the first generation to grow up with IT and the internet and who are comfortable with mobile phones and consumer internet tools.

"They'll be brought into the business, where they will have an induction to understand what our internal approach is and how we are trying to work with our customers," said 2e2 sales director Richard Ellis.

"The most interesting thing for them is that they will be able to come to board meetings where they can understand how we go about running a 250 million organisation," he said.

The service provider said that it wanted to learn and understand directly from Generation Y individuals rather than just guessing about how new tools would be incorporated into business. The scheme is also going to play a part in a new innovation centre it was building at its Newbury headquarters.

Ellis said: "It was a logical thing to do to look at people who were brought up with this technology and were driving adoption and evolution of these new tools."

"They will come into our business and help us to make the most of these opportunities. It also makes sense for people to be in this age range and local because they will be able get into the offices and because we can invest in our own local community."

Contestants enter the competition through the 2e2 website by finding a new and innovative social networking idea in business, videoing themselves using the mobile or camera and presenting it using YouTube or a Facebook group.

"What is difference is today is that the consumer market really is giving the new tools and the new ways of working," said Ellis. "It's showing corporates what possibilities are out there."