A first-year student who also works as a freelance game moderator has won a £1000 award from the Santander UK Freelancer scheme to help support his work.
Swansea University has a partnership with Santander, as part of the Santander Universities programme. This allows Swansea students unique access to funding opportunities for education, employability and enterprise.
Oliver Thomas, who studies mechanical engineering, is a freelance game moderator of Brawlhalla, an Esporta 2D fighter game. He started playing the game around 3 years ago, joining a community of other players and arranging tournaments. His first tournament saw a turnout of 10 players but he has since grown his following and now runs a community of 500 players and also moderates official tournaments which attract 8000 players.
Oliver applied for the Santander UK Freelancer Scheme after being notified about it by the Swansea University Enterprise Team. The Survive and Revive Freelancer invited students or recent graduates to apply for up to £1000 funding to support small and medium businesses, which could be anything that would be considered a typical freelance commission for a business client.
Oliver is going to use the £1000 award from Santander to develop his growing business.
Oliver Thomas said:
“My experience with the application process was really good… the programme will now allow me to make some ‘quality of life’ improvements to my current setup. I am very thankful for the Enterprise Team telling me about this programme and Santander for granting me the money”.
Kelly Jordan, senior enterprise officer at Swansea University, said:
“We are very proud to be a Santander University and this is an excellent demonstration of the way the collaborative relationship between Swansea and Santander is aiding in the development of our students’ businesses and start-ups”.