3rd November 2008

Email this Page |

Overall winners Charlotte Jess and Lynsey Woods

Five enterprising students were honoured at the Ulster Business School’s 2008 Placement Innovation and Entrepreneurship Awards ceremony.

Each received a prize for their contribution to driving innovation and excellence in Northern Ireland’s business community. 

Projects ranged from building brand equity in the transportation sector to an effective new process for controlling purchasing spend in the IT sector, as well as improving B2B interfaces in tourism.

The quality of the finalists led to the judging panel awarding the overall prize jointly to Charlotte Jess, a BSc Marketing student at the Jordanstown campus, and Lynsey Woods, a BSc Consumer Studies student at the Coleraine campus. 

Charlotte completed her placement year with Translink’s Marketing Division focusing particularly on the Metro brand. 

She saw the opportunity to market the Metro Day ticket to tourists more effectively and gained support from Translink’s Business Development team to take her idea forward.  Charlotte’s initiative led to the launch of the “See Belfast by Metro” visitor’s guide and sales of the Metro day ticket increasing by 13%. 

Charlotte’s placement employer at Translink, Lynda Shannon, said: “Charlotte has engaged with key stakeholders and developed innovative ways to design and market this publication – a tangible example of marketing expertise that has resulted in real business benefit.” 

Lynsey Woods completed her placement year within the University working with Ulster’s Step-Up team. 

To increase engagement with the programme Lynsey developed a highly innovative ‘Create n’ Cook’ competition targeted at Year 10 pupils living in areas of social and economic disadvantage. Lynsey successfully secured the support of leading chef and author Jenny Bristow, and raised over £15, 000 in sponsorship from local businesses to raise the profile of the competition. 

Dr Damien O’Kane, Head of Access and Educational Partnership, said:  “Lynsey has shown exceptionally high levels of creativity, resourcefulness and entrepreneurship.  As a result of the extremely positive publicity arising from the competition there are now three major sponsors in place to fund this activity on an ongoing basis.”  

Building hands-on business experience is at the centre of the Ulster Business School’s undergraduate business education and engagement strategy.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Professor Robert Hutchinson, Dean of the Ulster Business School said: “Last year we had over 350 students completing one-year placements across the Ulster Business School – our placement programme is one of the key reasons students choose to study with us. These prize winners and their employers are outstanding examples of what can be achieved during placement.” 

The aim of the Ulster Business School Placement Innovation and Entrepreneurship Awards is to celebrate student success but also to emphasise the additional benefits business placements bring to both employers and students.  

Dr Adele Dunn, co-ordinator of the awards, added: “Our prize winners, Charlotte and Lynsey, have maximised their opportunities during placement and working in conjunction with their supervisors from business and academia have made a significant impact in their work roles.  These examples emphasise the benefits to be gained from all those involved in the placement partnership.”

The full list of award winners includes:  

• Eimear Fitzpatrick, Intel Ireland Corporation
• Charlotte Jess. Translink
• Emma Robinson, Issac Agnew (Holdings) Ltd.
• Stella So, Tourism Ireland
• Lynsey Woods, Step –Up, University of Ulster

 

 

For further information, please contact:

Trina Porter
Telephone: 028 71675511
Email: Trina Porter