IF his achievements so far are anything to go by Lyme Regis student Tom Orchard has a stellar career ahead of him.

Last year the Colyton Grammar School pupil was selected from more than 1,200 applicants to join the prestigious Sutton Trust Programme in the USA.

Now he has just won a national 'employability challenge'.

The Year 13 student took part in the three-stage https://www.ratemyapprenticeship.co.uk so National Schools Employability Challenge.

He was among 60 other hopefuls who went to London for the final, which involved an employability and psychometric testing quiz and a group project and presentation.

The competition was run in conjunction with professional services company Price Waterhouse Cooper.

Jenny Highfield from PWC said: "Thomas was the top scorer at this event and the overall winner of the competition, an outstanding

achievement."

Tom's dad Peter said: "Tom attends Colyton Grammar and they initially passed information about The National Schools Employablility Challenge to the students to see if they wanted to enter. Tom's always up for a challenge, so decided to have a go.

"He wanted to see how the knowledge he's picked up at school would stand up in competition."

Tom said he learnt a lot from the competition and especially finals day.

He said: "I learnt some very useful skills on the day. PwC ran sessions on commercial awareness, post-secondary school opportunities, and interview techniques.

"A big feature of the day was making connections with PwC which I hope will lead to practical experience with them in the future. Also it was great to spend a day working with a diverse group of talented students from across the UK."

Tom received a trophy for winning, plus an Ipad mini and the promise of paid work experience with PwC.