Law student Francis Payne

The scholarship provides financial assistance to students wanting to study for the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC). It is the most prestigious award from The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court, and is only given to a few outstanding candidates nationally each year.

He will use the scholarship to pay most of the £16,000 fees for his Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), which he will study next year at the City Law School in London.

Francis said: “Being awarded the scholarship is fantastic. Not only will it help financially, but it has given me confidence in my ability to follow my chosen career, and could help me get a pupillage after my BPTC.”

Francis, 20, was awarded the scholarship after impressing an interview panel of judges made up of senior members of the legal profession.

Bernard Davis, senior lecturer in the School of Law, said: “Students from the School of Law have won scholarships previously, but the Queen Mother’s Scholarship is a real mark of distinction, highly sought after and keenly contested in a ferociously competitive environment.

“That Francis impressed some very senior lawyers in his interview is a testament to his quality.”

Francis will attend a scholarship dinner in June at Middle Temple, as the guest of a member of the Inn.

The awards were held on May 1, 2013 and were organised by the University’s student and graduate enterprise team.

One of the first prize winners was Jennifer Le Roux, who is completing her final year at the University of Portsmouth and has produced a digital magazine called AltMu that focuses on the behind of the scenes side of music.

Jennifer said: “I feel very excited to win, it’s been hard work running the magazine while studying so it’s great to get the vote of confidence from the judges.”

Holly Foley, a student at the University’s Dental Academy, also won first prize. She has developed a training model for wannabe dentists to practise giving injections. She said: “I’m just over the moon and can’t believe it. It’s nice to have someone from a science background rather than business and it shows anyone can do it.”

The winners and runners up

Jennifer and Holly each win £2,000 to be spent on developing the business as well as on being mentored.

Runners up TerraBite Interactive have created a survival horror game. They win free office space at the Victory Business Centre for six months.

Keshia Austin was the keynote speaker. Keshia won an award last year for English Direct, a scheme to help students for whom English isn’t their first language improve their language skills. She currently works at recruitment consultants Matchtech and is involved with the council’s Shaping Portsmouth scheme.

Keshia offered some advice to current students. She said: “Be tenacious, be motivated, use your time wisely, share your talents with other students to get things for free and network with people.

“When I was a student I had a burning desire to prove I could do anything that I wanted, I think that’s important.”

The Enterprise Challenge is an annual event held at the University of Portsmouth and has been running for 13 years. The award ceremony is an opportunity for people from local businesses to meet upcoming entrepreneurs from the University.

Enterprise events co-ordinator, Carley Cummings, said:  “We are very proud of our students and their entrepreneurial spirits. This event is always a great reminder of how much talent we have at the University.”

Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi’s winning photo

A student with a passion for documentary photography has won a prestigious photography award from Sony.

Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi, a second-year photography student at the University of Portsmouth, won first prize in the culture category of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards Youth Award. The Youth Award is open to photographers aged 19 and under.

Alecsandra, from Romania, said: “I am really proud about this competition. It was a wonderful surprise.

“I discovered photography after many years of being passionate about arts, design and painting. Something drew me into documentary and portraiture. I think it was the fact that people and their stories have always fascinated me.”

Alecsandra’s winning photograph will feature in a month-long exhibition of the winners and finalists at Somerset House in London, and will be published in the Sony World Photography Awards book. The image was taken on New Year’s Eve in the city of Botosani, in the Moldavia region of Romania, and features a mask-dance called the ‘Dance of the bear’, a tradition still practised in rural areas.

According to Alecsandra: “The tradition aims to purify and fertilise the soil for the next year.

“The costumes are kept and preserved for hundreds of years and only used for the New Year’s traditions.”

Daniel Alexander, course leader of the BA (Hons) Photography at Portsmouth, said: “Alecsandra is a fantastic student. She is an extremely talented photographer with ambition and dedication to her work.”

Alecsandra is now in the running for Overall Youth Photographer of the Year, which will be selected from the three youth award category winners and announced at the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards gala ceremony on April 25.

The Sony World Photography Awards were launched in 2008 and are run by the World Photography Organisation. The awards are judged by juries selected from the World Photographic Academy and the wider photography industry.

Alecsandra’s website

Law students are encouraged by visiting family barrister Hugh Merry to apply for the Bar

One of the UK’s ancient Inns of Court attended an outreach event at the University of Portsmouth’s School of Law to encourage students to aim for the Bar.

The visit to Portsmouth Business School by some of the country’s most prominent lawyers was a coup for the School.

The event was sponsored by one of the UK’s four Inns, the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, and was attended by judges and barristers on the Western Circuit.

Judge Mark Sutherland-Williams talks with law students

The Inns are professional associations for barristers and judges in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, a lawyer must belong to one of the four Inns.

School of Law lecturer Bernard Davis said: “This is the first outreach event of its kind and is an accolade for Portsmouth.

“Modern universities are under represented at the Bar because more traditional universities have historically provided an ample supply of well qualified recruits.

“But things are changing now with the recognition that the modern universities also have academic talent and students with the essential personal qualities needed to complement academic excellence. Both are required to be successful in practice.”

The drinks and talks reception was, Bernard said, all about the future, about inspiring young student lawyers they can aim for the highest positions in their career.

He said: “A number of former students have won scholarships to the Inns and one has secured a pupillage, which is a bit like winning the Pools. This is very impressive for a relatively new Law School and we have other promising candidates following this lead.”

Dawn Hyland, from the Crown Prosecution Service, talks with a law student

All barristers have to be a member of one of the Inns, all of which are in London. If they practise at the independent Bar, they also become members of the “circuit”, or geographical region where they practise. Portsmouth is in the Western Circuit.

After graduation, would-be barristers must first take the one-year Bar professional training course and attend 12 training events at their Inn. They must then complete 12 months’ pupillage, attached to a practising barrister, before they are fully qualified to practise on their own.

The four Inns of Court have a rich history going back to the 14th century and are Temple Inn, Gray’s Inn, Middle Temple and Lincoln’s Inn.

Shadow Minister Toby Perkins watches Portsmouth Business School students Dan and Ollie role-play a complex sales negotiation meeting using current best-practice methods

The Shadow Minister for Small Business, Toby Perkins MP, visited Portsmouth Business School yesterday to see first-hand an English university which is an internationally-recognised pioneer of sales education.

Mr Perkins’ visit was inspired by a recent round table meeting with sales professionals including the Head of Marketing and Sales at Portsmouth, Beth Rogers.

He told staff and students sales skills are vital for the growth of UK and more emphasis needs to be put on sales education in schools, colleges and universities. He also said he was concerned that professional sales skills have been undervalued in business studies courses and praised Portsmouth Business School for being a beacon of excellence in sales education.

He met current and former students and took a strong interest in their work, quizzing them on their training, skills and the rationale behind different selling techniques.

Beth Rogers said: “Toby has a passionate interest in sales education, as do we, and it is encouraging that he is determined to address the sales skills gap which exists in the UK.

“If the UK is to fully and quickly recover from the recession we need to develop the professional salespeople and sales managers that employers need and value.

“You don’t get to grow quickly internationally by being cheaper, you get it by knowing how to grow your revenue by being smarter and better at creating value for customers with very different needs – this is at the root of what we teach our business studies undergraduates.”

The MP told staff and students that he left school at 17 and his first job was in telephone sales. Soon after he became regional sales manager in the Midlands for a national recruitment firm and after seven years entered parliament.

He said: “What strikes me is how casual the UK is in valuing and recognising sales ability.

“Sales accounts for 10 per cent of all jobs in the UK, more than the NHS. When I found out about the work going on here at Portsmouth I was very enthusiastic to come and see it first-hand.

“We in the Labour Party want to raise the profile of sales as a career. It’s a tremendously important profession and has the potential to put UK plc back in the black.”

A few months ago, Mr Perkins started working with the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management to find ways for the government to help the sales profession become more credible and provide better training and clearer career paths for young people.

He believes what is required to turn sales into a profession is a research base underpinned by a partnership between government, academia, industry and professional sales institutes.

The UK Commission for Employment and Skills has reported that sales and customer service are among the skills most lacking in the workforce and are also among the jobs with high vacancy rates.

Ms Rogers said: “I fear other countries are going to overtake the UK on sales skills. It will not come as a surprise to anyone that sales education is booming in the US, because business sponsors of higher education there want sales-ready graduates.

“What may be more of a wake-up call for the UK is the performance of Finland, where the government encourages sales education because new companies in their small local market have to go global very quickly.

“The labour market report for sales commissioned by the government in 2008, before the recession, revealed huge gaps in the sales skills needed by employers, and the latest report for sales shows the problem persists. The government quite rightly pays attention to legislating against bad selling, but policymakers should consider how important it is to encourage good selling in its place.”

The exhibition is part of New Creatives, a collaboration between the University of Portsmouth, Aspex Gallery and seven local colleges. It will include visual art, photography, 3D sculpture and installation, animation and film, graphics and sound.

Artwork by Zoe Radcliffe, art and design student at South Downs College

Young people aged 16–18 from local further education and sixth form colleges have been working with commissioned artists Chris Jenkins, Oliver Merkin and Eileen White to produce work for the exhibition. University of Portsmouth students have acted as ‘buddies’ to the three artists, giving them professional practice to enrich their CVs.

Artist Eileen White said: “I was really impressed by the depth of research, commitment and level of skill demonstrated by all of the students who have committed extra time and effort to this project.”

Now in its fourth year, New Creatives gives young people a chance to exhibit their work at Aspex, an Arts Council England National Portfolio gallery in Gunwharf Quays, which is normally home to the work of professional artists. The college students are also invited to help curate the exhibition and get free membership of Aspex.

Denise Callender, Promotions Manager for the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries at the university and the exhibition’s curator, said: “I’m really excited to see what work the students have come up with in response to this year’s theme. I’m always impressed by the enthusiasm and talent they display.”

The exhibition work is produced by students studying creative courses at Chichester, Havant, Highbury, Fareham, Portsmouth, South Downs and St Vincent colleges. The exhibition will also feature the artistic response to working on the project by the university student buddies.

Lauren Scott-Smith, a final-year illustration student and one of the student buddies, said: “I particularly enjoyed seeing the project through, from developing ideas to curating the work at Aspex Gallery. I was able to learn about the artist’s working practice and gain a lot of knowledge from her experiences as a professional artist.”

The project is designed to generate relationships, collaborations and a legacy of creative partnerships between the University of Portsmouth and colleges and organisations in the city of Portsmouth and surrounding region. With 140 students taking part each year, over the last four years 500 young artists have exhibited their artwork through the project.

There will be a preview launch on Friday March 8, 6–8pm, which will include a short speech and the chance to see the pieces before the exhibition officially opens on Saturday.

The exhibition is open from March 9 to April 14 2013, 11am–4pm daily, at the Aspex, Vulcan Building, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth PO1 3BF. The launch event and exhibition are both free to attend.

Glenn Lewis Smith’s 16-minute film ‘Losing Sight of the Glory: Medical Reflections on the War’ won against strong competition. It tells a compelling story of medical advances learned through war.

A second University of Portsmouth film, ‘Men of Magic’, by Richard Bearpark, was shortlisted in the same awards.

Glenn was unable to attend the ceremony because he is working in the Gulf but he was kept up to date with a running commentary from the event via Twitter with course tutor Charlie Watts.

Glenn said: “Charlie had helped me find employment in Doha, Qatar last year but I had no idea the work would eventually preclude me from attending my own award ceremony. Thankfully, Charlie’s tweets allowed me to find out the good news seconds after it was announced in Winchester. I was completely over the moon when he told me that I had won.”

Glenn’s film was produced as a final year project, and his project supervisor was Gary Bown.

Winners: Course tutor Charlie Watts, left, and project supervisor Gary Bown at the RTS awards

Gary said: “I’m delighted Glenn’s film has won. I can remember first seeing an early draft of his film and I was astonished. It is quite simply one of the best student films I’ve ever seen, and although it is very graphic in its detailing of particular injuries sustained in the battle of Waterloo, its narrative is gripping.

“I wish more students involved in producing TV factual work would pursue serious and weighty subject matter because there seems to be a trend for producing lots of comedy routines and light entertainment that steers clear of more involved topics.

“It was a real insight at the awards seeing the types of work that impress the broadcast industry. All of the work was challenging and really meaningful.”

The awards ceremony was attended by staff and students from the School of Creative Technologies, their peers from other south coast educational institutions and most of the professional broadcast teams from the BBC South and Meridian.

Charlie Watts said: “We attended the ceremony with high hopes, and when ‘Men of Magic’ didn’t win the award for best student documentary, Gary and I started to feel a bit anxious. The work my course usually produces is not necessarily focused on winning awards as we are more engaged with professional client work that is great for getting students graduate jobs, but both of the films that were nominated had that special something and that inspired us to submit them.”

Glenn returns from the Gulf this week and can’t wait to collect his award.

He said: “It feels amazing to win. I was really lucky to have to met Michael Crumplin, a retired general surgeon who features in my film and who helped me. He is so knowledgeable and enabled me to make a documentary about a dark and interesting part of history.

“The really great feeling is knowing that more people will hopefully be able to view my current and future work. That’s what every filmmaker wants, their work to be seen.

“I wanted to make this period in history more interesting to a younger audience, so animating the selected paintings to move was a way to make it more engaging.”

Glenn’s film will now be entered into the national Royal Television Society Awards to be held in London later this year.

If the video above doesn’t play on your browser, it can be accessed at: http://vimeo.com/ccitv/losingsight

Claudiu Gheorghita was one of three people to be awarded Employee of the Year 2012 in the restaurant department. This came after winning Employee of the Month along with fellow placement student Hannibal Madsen.  Both students, who are studying hospitality management and tourism at the University of Portsmouth Business School, are spending the third year of their course working at Raymond Blanc’s five-star hotel in Oxfordshire.

Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons is focused on employee development and training and the Employee of the Month award is a way of recognising the efforts and hard work of individual employees.

Julia Murrell, Director of Human Resources at Le Manoir, said: “We are delighted that Hannibal and Claudiu have both received Employee of the Month awards during their internships here. It demonstrates how much they are putting into their training, and shows how much they have learned and achieved so far.”

Hannibal, who is working in reception and guest relations at the hotel, said: “I was competing with industry professionals, so I feel honoured to win the award.”

Both students believe winning the award will help them in their future career plans. Hannibal said: “I hope that this will show any prospective employers that I am reliable, hard working and a good ambassador for my workplace.”

Claudiu, who is working in the Michelin-starred restaurant, said: “I believe that my future employers will see these awards as proof of my skills. It’s also about how much you want to achieve, and how much you want to develop yourself.”

Their tutor, Robin Shepherd, from the University’s Business School, said: “We are very proud of the many hundreds of our undergraduate students who spend a year in industry as part of their degree. They all perform well, sometimes brilliantly, for their host organisations.

“This award is of course Hannibal and Claudiu’s to enjoy but it is also ours to celebrate, as from their very first day, we have worked hard together to develop the sort of employability skills that are so highly valued by the industry.”

All winners of Employee of the Month at Le Manoir are nominated by their colleagues, before being shortlisted and then voted as winners by the team. The prize is dinner at Le Manoir, including sommelier selected wines and champagne on arrival for two.

Kristina Angelova, who is studying BA (Hons) Business Studies, was nominated by her employer Bradbeers, where she spent her third year working on placement as an e-commerce and digital marketing manager. She is one of only four finalists in the Best Student Contribution to a Small or Medium-sized Enterprise category.

In their fourth year, the awards recognise and celebrate the achievements of employers, universities and students involved in undergraduate placements and internships. Stephen Davies, part-owner of Smith Bradbeer & Co, which has several department and furniture stores in the south of England, said: “Kristina is highly respected by me and her co-workers. During her time here, she has had an amazing impact on the company. She is hard working, dedicated and a great person to have in your team.”

Emma Winter, Kristina’s supervisor at the University during her placement, said: “She really is incredibly driven. Yet she has the ability to remain level headed, keep a sense of humour and be thoroughly likeable as well. I hope she inspires other students.”

Kristina was previously nominated for the award of Most Employable Young Talent in the UK at the Google and Entrepreneur Country Young Masters Awards 2012, and was runner-up in the 2011 Business Champions team competition, organised by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Bright Futures. She was also the 2010 winner in the Rising Star category at the Enterprise Challenge Awards, organised by the University of Portsmouth.

The awards ceremony takes place on Friday February 15 in London.

Opening doors: Hafsa Bibi

A computing student at the University of Portsmouth has won a place at the prestigious Women in Technology event run for women studying traditionally male-dominated subjects.

Hafsa Bibi, in her second year of a computing degree at the University’s Faculty of Technology, was one of just a few young women from the region to be offered a place.

The biannual event, called ‘IT’s not just for the boys!’, took place at Bloomberg headquarters in London as part of the Steminism UK network. The event aims to provide information, support and guidance about careers for women studying science, technology, engineering and maths, commonly called STEM subjects.

Hafsa said: “The event was really inspiring; I met a lot of females in technology and networked with many different people in the industry. The networking was particularly enjoyable as I got to meet and talk to professional women from a variety of companies.

“There was a session with a confidence coach which was fun, but also very useful, and a question time session, where we could ask top female employers about who and what they were looking for, how they got to where they are now and what the industry is really like.

“It was interesting to hear about the different routes that women had taken to become successful in their careers.”

The event was run by Target Jobs in partnership with global technology giants including IBM and Microsoft.

Emily Parry, senior student employability and enterprise officer at the University, said: “Many STEM industries are male dominated, so events like this highlight career routes for female graduates and will hopefully go some way to helping redress the balance.

“I’m delighted that Hafsa took advantage of such a prestigious opportunity. She was one of only a handful in our region to be selected. It’s really helped her think about the type of career roles she might pursue – not only for her industrial placement in the next academic year, but also once she graduates.”