Westminster students take part in industry internship competitions to showcase emerging Real Estate talent

The three events provided Real Estate BSc Honours students with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, with cash prizes and prestigious internships up for grabs. At each competition they had to showcase their expertise and explain the reasons why they should win the internships to a panel of industry experts.

For the Savills competition, eight top-performing students from the University’s Commercial Practice module advanced to the final round, where they delivered a three-minute pitch to a panel of industry professionals from Savills including Westminster alumna Sandra Nwachukwu. This was followed by an in-depth interview where they continued to highlight their knowledge gained throughout the module and spoke about their aspirations within the Real Estate sector. 

Taking first place and a six-month internship at Savills was Rashaan San Luis, who impressed the judges with his enthusiastic pitch. The judges also named two runners-up, Michal Rainda and Alexander Fofie, were also commended for their exceptional presentations and awarded a fast track to Savills summer internship assessment days.

These initiatives continue to yield success, with last year’s winner, Gurleen Ghotra, set to join the Savills Graduate Scheme in September 2025. 

For the Foxtons competition, the students used the lessons learnt in their Housing Law, Sales and Practice module to present on three key challenges facing the business and the potential methods of overcoming them. Out of the six shortlisted, the winners were Monika Mihaylova and Michal Rainda who won paid internships as a Property Administrator and Viewing Assistant respectively.

The final competition was with the British property developer Berkeley Group. For this competition the students took the lessons learned from their Residential Survey and Development module and explored how they would apply them at a company such as the Berkeley Group. Eight students were selected to attend and Veer Larh was named the winner, receiving a four-week internship.

Veer with Berkeley Group recruiters

About taking part in this year’s competitions Veer said: “Being shortlisted for several prestigious competitions and winning the Berkeley Group internship has honestly meant a lot to me. It feels like a real testament to how far I’ve come. It’s going to give me invaluable experience heading into my final year and will hopefully put me in a strong position when applying for graduate schemes.”

Dr Jan Wilcox, Senior Lecturer in Real Estate and Director of Employability School of Applied Management, said: “The most enjoyable aspect of my role as Employability Director is working with industry to create internships that provide our students with vitally important work experience. The competitions provide all short-listed students with invaluable interview experience and the winners can use their internships to contribute towards the two-week compulsory work experience that forms part of their degree.

“We are so grateful to our industry partners for this support and already have two additional employers keen to work with us next year which will help to achieve my objective of an industry sponsor for every module on the Real Estate BSc Honours degree.”

Facilitating these competitions to give students the opportunity to work with industry experts directly contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth and 17: Partnerships for the Goals. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.  

To find out more about how companies can collaborate with the University of Westminster contact the Development Team. 

Find out more about studying Construction, Surveying and Real Estate courses at the University of Westminster.