Success for Salome as student wins annual work experience competition

An International Festival and Event Management student - who has landed a job with the company she was on placement with - has been recognised as the winner of this year's Edinburgh Napier student work experience competition.

Business School student Salome Harang has beat off competition from more than 35 student submissions to win the top prize.

Salome - who undertook her placement with commercialisation venue specialist SpaceandPeople in Glasgow - impressed judges with her reflections of her internship.

Her submission described how she played a pivotal role in helping the company expand into the European market alongside touching on her personal journey, detailing how the placement has helped with both her self-confidence and her use of the English language.

Salome's time with the company was such a success that she has now secured a permanent role in the business, a role that she has combined with her final year of study at Edinburgh Napier

Launched in 2022, the student work experience competition - which is run by the University's Student Futures team - sees students submit written case studies of their time on placement to the competition.

Submissions touch on several subjects including the student's role, skills learnt, challenges overcome and reflections. The Student Futures team and a judging panel whittled down the shortlist to eight before an overall winner is chosen.

The standard of entries was so high again this year, that two submissions were also chosen as runners-up.

Calypso Jackson - Business Management with Marketing

Stella Hosier - Business Management with Entrepreneurship

Carolann Begbie, Director of People and Student Services at Edinburgh Napier and part of this year's judging panel, said: "One of the things I love about Edinburgh Napier is the commitment we make to our students to support them personally and professionally in securing employment when they have completed their study with us. Build Careers is one of our strategic objectives and our Student Futures team works really hard to ensure our students get as much support as possible to secure graduate level employment when they graduate.

"We supported over 850 students last year with a work placement, as well as more than 2000 nursing and midwifery students and it's been great to be part of judging the competition this year. Hearing the stories from students on the benefits of having a placement opportunity both in developing their confidence and skills has been great. I look forward to hearing how they continue to flourish when they leave university and enter the world of work."

Alice Strong, Placement Manager within Edinburgh Napier's Student Futures team, paid tribute to the placement host organisations - many of whom are alumni of the University. Without their support, providing employment and learning opportunities to students simply wouldn't be possible.

She said: "The Work Experience Competition allows us not only to reflect on and celebrate the wonderful successes of our placement students, but also the opportunities presented to them by their placement host organisations. Each year we work with hundreds of employers, many of whom are alumni (or even former placement students), who make these placements possible. We are hugely appreciative of these partnerships and the support and effort that these employers put into the placements - we, quite literally, couldn't do it without them!"

Ross Watson fromEdinburgh Napier's Student Futures team said: "Organising the competition with my colleague Lucy Hughes has been an immensely rewarding experience. We had so many brilliant entries from all schools, and reading the inspiring accounts of their time on placement really reminds us why we do what we do."

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  Salome Harang

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  Calypso Jackson

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  Stella Hosier

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