Alex Hallimond is moving through the gears at Enterprise Rent-A-Car after receiving a first-class Honours degree.
Alex balanced his Business and Applied Management course with his role at the car hire company, where he was quickly promoted to Assistant Manager after impressing his colleagues.
Alex excelled in both his studies and work, working tirelessly to ensure that he graduated with a high quality degree and that his family were supported financially after his father passed away.
Alex’s hard work saw him awarded The Sir Tom Cowie Scholarship last year, which eased the financial burden placed upon him and allowed him to focus on his studies. He is of the firm belief that his lofty achievements would not have been possible without the support of the scholarship.
He said: “I wouldn't have had the chance to reach my academic and career goals if it wasn't for the scholarship.
“The main reason I applied for the scholarship was so that I could reduce my hours at Enterprise and concentrate on the final year of my degree whilst keeping my foot in the door at a large firm and securing a job at the end of my studies.”
The security the scholarship allowed him to concentrate entirely on his studies safe in the knowledge he could continue with Enterprise following graduation, when previously he would have had to balance study time with job hunting. This, he added, played a crucial part in helping him to high academic achievements at the University.
“The knowledge that I had a good job to go to at the end of my degree meant that the pressure was off in terms of job hunting and it meant that the time I would have spent at interviews and assessment centres could be used to study,” he explained. “I wouldn't have had the chance to reach my academic and career goals if it wasn't for the support the scholarship offered.”
After graduation, Alex will move into a full-time role at Enterprise and has set himself the goal of becoming a branch manager “within a few months”. Having already made a promising start to his career along with the prospect of a management position at the age of just 22, it’s clear that Alex has an extremely bright future on the horizon. This, he believes, could not have been achieved without the support of the Scholarship and he advices any current students to apply for it if they think they would benefit from the extra support.
He concluded: “I was lucky in the sense that my placement successes resulted in a recommendation to apply for the scholarship, however it is open to a wide variety of students who could benefit from support during their studies.
“My advice would be to demonstrate your ambition to succeed in both your career and your studies and you will be surprised how beneficial a scholarship can be to your personal development.”
Article written by Matthew Shevlin, University of Sunderland Journalism graduate.