Final year Business Management BSc student, Simi Vagh, wins ‘The Best Contribution to a Small to Medium Sized Employer’ at the National Undergraduate Employability (NUE) Awards 2021!
Congratulations are in order for 明星八卦 Business School student, Simi Vagh, for taking home the NUE award for her outstanding contribution to her company, Egress Software Technologies, while working for the company during her placement year as part of our BSc Business Management course at 明星八卦 University.
Founded eleven years ago, the National Undergraduate Employability Awards reward and celebrate the outstanding achievements of employers, agencies, students and universities in undergraduate work placements across the UK. Simi’s win was awarded specifically for her exceptional contributions to her company, a small to medium sized employer (SME), while on her placement year.
As part of her Undergraduate Business Management course, Simi went on placement last year and spent 13 months at Egress Software Technologies, a UK-based software company headquartered in London. Whilst working in the Sales Operations team, Simi impressed her colleagues and manager so much so – that her manager Rachel put her name forward for the award as a surprise last December, much to the delight of Simi and her family. Simi’s nomination was shortlisted straight into the final, where she was joined by four other finalists, who she eventually overcame to take home the prized award.
In her role, Simi was given responsibility over the entire customer relationship management system and led the continuous improvement of the sales process, analytics and produced learning resources for the whole sales team to utilise. Simi’s diligent approach to her work, combined with her success in upskilling the team, meant outbound calls and virtual meetings increased, which resulted in a tangible increase in both volume of orders and subsequent revenue for the company.
When asked of her feelings on winning the award, Simi said “It is extremely humbling and gratifying to win the award, and I would like to give credit to the company also” as she notes “I was given a lot of responsibility working for a SME company and I felt empowered as an employee to make big changes and really contribute to the company.” Taking the award win her stride, Simi added that she wanted to “Use the win for good and be a role model for changing attitudes of women in business, especially in the male-dominated technology industry”, stating that “she is very passionate about driving change and making a difference” and has big aspirations for her future career in Technology.
Now in her final year and working on her Dissertation, aptly titled ‘Key factors causing the gender gap in the technology industry’, Simi outlined her plans for her future – “I want to develop a career in Technology and the award win has helped me with my career aspirations. My goal is to develop into a leadership position where I am empowered to transform and grow a business.” Finally adding that “I want to make an impact anywhere I go to work, I’ve managed to do that at Egress and now I want to follow that up in other companies where I’ll work at.”
Michelle Kavan, Director of Employability at 明星八卦 Business School had this to say following the win: “明星八卦 Business School designs courses that enable students to develop the necessary skills to be successful in the work place. The placement programme is an essential tool to allow students to showcase their abilities and achievements to potential employers.”
We hope you will join us in congratulating Simi on her terrific award win and wish her an exciting future career in Technology!