Much like the BBC’s Apprentice, five student teams at Reading University won the opportunity to present their work to Peter Erskine, Chief Executive Officer at O2. The student teams showcased their abilities to impress the ‘big boss’ in the hope to win a once in a lifetime opportunity for the top 3 student teams to join O2’s award winning marketing team on a highly sought placement for a number of weeks over the student summer holidays. Since the start of this year, O2 has been working with Reading University, supporting the curriculum for almost 100 marketing students, using O2 as a case study to bring the marketing concepts to life. O2 has provided the resource and materials to support the project, aimed at developing the next generation of management and marketeers. The three winning teams are as follows: 1st – tExt: Rachel Peck, Heather Dawson, Victoria Jarvis, Athar Ahmad 2nd – O2Cafe: Katie Bond, Micheal Sunderland, Kate Smith, Marianne Afflick 3rd – Intouch: Alessandra Vaile, Erol Darbaz, Katy Berzins, Laura Hurst Russ Shaw, Marketing Director, O2 UK, said: “It has been great to witness the fresh creative ideas Reading students have been capable of. The winning teams will join us here at O2 for a placement opportunity to practice putting their newly acquired marketing skills in place – in real-time.” Dr Christine Phillips from the University of Reading Business School said: ‘O2’s involvement has been inspirational- it has both delighted and ‘wowed’ our students. The company’s dynamic and vibrant marketing team have led Reading management students through the marketing experiences of one of the UK’s leading companies. The course has excited and challenged everyone. Students have responded by producing some really outstanding and innovative projects.” We believe the partnership between O2 and Reading has provided students with a truly unique business- academic experience, and we are very much looking forward to continued involvement with O2 next year. In the words of one student ‘it really has been awesome….’.’