Hereford-based allpay is thrilled to announce that an employee has beaten off tough competition to be acclaimed Business Advisor of the Year in the West Midlands by Young Enterprise (YE).

Marketing Communications Manager, Rebecca White was awarded the title of Best Business Advisor of the Year at the West Midlands Regional Finals 2008/09 at Aston University on Thursday June 19th.

Rebecca has been a Young Enterprise Business adviser since September 2007 with the Business Diploma group from Herefordshire College of Technology (HCT), supported by Link Teacher, Julie Pond.

It was her group of students from the YE company at HCT, Fresh from Hereford that nominated her for the Business Advisor accolade. The award recognises the experiences, knowledge and critical guidance a Business Adviser provides a YE Company. There are several hundred schools and businesses in the West Midlands that take part in YE.

The students believe Rebecca won because, “she’s so approachable yet professional. She showed us the value of teamwork and the importance of being able to work as a team. She gave us advice on approaching customers and the public and encouraged us to find a unique selling point to push more customers to purchase our products. The most crucial thing she did was boost our confidence to give us the courage to speak to customers and present.”

On receiving the award Rebecca said “I was so touched to be nominated by my students this year. It’s great to know that they have enjoyed the experience and have got so much out of it and that I have helped in some way. To get to the finals was an achievement, but to win was a wonderful surprise! I know how many hundreds of other great business advisors there are in the West Midlands area and I was honoured to be recognised as one of them.

“YE is an absolutely fantastic experience, working with such energetic, talented individuals, watching them grow and become more confident as they work through the programme. I too, have found it an important learning curve, developing my own business acumen and professional skills.”

Tony Killeen, Managing Director of allpay stated, “It’s a fantastic achievement for Rebecca to win this award, she has put in a lot of work and we’re very proud of her.”

Elyot Chambers, Business Diploma Course Leader of HCT stated “This is an excellent achievement for Rebecca. Her energy and enthusiasm really does bring the best out of our Young Enterprise students.”

 www.young-enterprise.org.uk/pub