Partner Article

ACCA announces winner of Undergraduate of the Year

ACCA announces winner and runner-up of Undergraduate of the Year competition

Manchester and Durham students named as winner and runner-up for Future CFO Category

Aataullah Nasser from the University of Manchester and Daniel Arnold from the University of Durham have been named as the winner and runner-up of the ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) sponsored Future CFO category in the Undergraduate of the Year competition, which is run annually by Target Jobs.

Both Aataullah and Daniel have won a trip to China with the chance to meet senior finance leaders from the region. As overall winner Aataullah will also receive a summer paid internship with Talk Talk.

The winner and runner-up were chosen from 10 finalists – selected from over 200 entrants, announced in March, and received their prizes on the 24 April at a lunch for all finalists in Canary Wharf in London.

To win the prize, the shortlisted listed candidates were invited to an assessment day, where the candidates had to complete written and team exercises. These were designed to test their situation judgement, communication skills, information management as well as their ability to work cooperatively to produce a short creative presentation. Aataullah and Daniel were selected as the top two from the group.

Mark Cornell, ACCA director, Western Europe and the Americas, said: “The prize is an incredible opportunity for any aspiring business person. The chance to travel to China and meet senior business people from the region is an experience not to miss. The insight they can provide on the development of one of the world’s strongest economies will be fascinating.

“In addition to the trip to China, Aataullah will get the chance to bolster his CV with a summer internship, something that will stand him in good stead when he enters the job market following his graduation next year.

“ACCA was proud to sponsor this award, we have outstanding young business talent in the UK and we believe we should do all we can to nurture and develop individuals who will have a positive impact on the economy in years to come. They have both shown ambition and ability and if they retain that I’m sure they will have great careers in front of them.”

The ACCA sponsored category was open to students in the penultimate year of their undergraduate degree at a UK university, studying a subject related to business, accountancy and finance, maths or economics. They had to have at least 300 UCAS points and be predicted to earn at least a 2:1 in their degree.

Target Jobs runs its Undergraduate of the Year competition annually and has categories ranging from business to law to engineering.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by ACCA .