npower launches fifth annual Future Leaders competition

npower has launched its fifth annual hunt for the country's top students who have the passion needed to help tackle an environmental issue in their local area and inspire people to live more sustainable lives.

With eight spaces available, the winning university teams will be joined by volunteers from npower on the trip of a lifetime to the Amazon Rainforest where they will experience the effects of climate change first hand and gain insight into the environment, resources and nature around them by living with an indigenous tribe for a week.

npower is also offering the eight winning students a summer internship where they can gain work experience across many different business areas and understand the dynamic energy industry.

Future Leaders is a competition for groups of two to four university students. To enter, students need to make a short film identifying a green project they would like to solve in either their university or local community and send their film to npower before the 10th May 2013. The short listed teams will go on an action packed course in Dartmoor in June. The course has been specially designed to help develop team building and leadership skills, environmental knowledge and other key skills that will enable them to deliver their green projects.

These short listed teams then have six months to bring their projects to life using the skills they have learnt at the outward bounds course. Future Leaders project has been designed to equip students with skills that will not only enable them to solve environmental projects, but develop employability skills which could position them ahead of their peers when making future job applications.

Graham Dickson from St Andrew's University was one of eight students from the 2010 competition, who journeyed 200km through the Arctic Circle with huskies and now works in the Property Sustainability team at npower. Commenting on the experience, he said: "The prize offered by npower in the Future Leaders competition was truly a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity. The skills and expertise l developed from the trip played a vital part in securing the role I'm now in and I continue to draw upon project management and team working skills within my role on a daily basis."

Kerry Riley, Graduate Recruitment Manager, said: "npower understand that graduates are a vital part of a successful business, especially in challenging times. This year the graduate programme is looking for people to join an industry which is at the heart of the debate on environmental change and applications are open at npowerjobs.com/graduates."

Clare McDougall, npower's head of education and community said: "The npower Future Leaders Challenge has been developed to find the next generation of forward thinking leaders; young people with drive and passion, committed to learning about climate change and discovering new solutions to tackle its effects."

To apply and find out more information about the Future Leaders competition, go to npowerjobs.com/graduates/future-leaders

About npower:
npower is one of the UK's largest electricity suppliers and has 6.5 million customer accounts across the UK.

npower has been awarded platinum status in Business in the Community's CR Index and is one of 46 companies to have achieved the CommunityMark since its launch. All CommunityMark achievers have been recognised for demonstrating excellence in their holistic and strategic approach to community investment.

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