Manchester students visit No10 Downing Street

11 Apr 2017

For the third year running the Careers Service partnered with the Civil Service to run the ‘Behind the Black Door’ marketing competition

Students from across the University were eligible to apply for the competition which took place in March, and after a review of all the submissions 25 students were selected to take part – forming five teams of five students. 

Government Executive Director for Communications Alex Aiken was the head judge on the panel along with Head of Politics Francesca Gains and two current Manchester students.

On the competition day students were given two hours to prepare a five minute pitch to the judging panel on the topic of ‘how to increase UK voter turnout across all demographics’. 

After much deliberation the judges decided to award a winning and runner-up team, with the prize being a visit to the Cabinet Office and No.10 Downing Street. The students were able to attend several meetings with senior Civil Servants from across Government departments.

Careers Manager Paul Gratrick accompanied the students and he said: "The day spent in Whitehall was a fantastic opportunity for students to get ‘Behind the Black Door’ and to learn how government communications and marketing works."  

The students:

Winning team:                                                

• Matthew Kaplicz, Modern History and Economics second year

• Jason Yu, Chemical Engineering third year

• Mohsin Uppal, Maths first year

• Matt Smith, Pharmacy first year

• Erin Kyle-Davidson, Law with Politics final

Runners-up:

• Carla Cilli, Politics first year

• Aicha Daneliuc, PPE first year

• Robert Derevski, PPEF first year

• Tomas Cihak, Politics first year

• Julija Loginovic, Politics first year

Pictured (L-R): Matthew Kaplicx, Jason Yu, Mohsin Uppal, Matt Smith, Erin Kyle-Davidson, Carla Cilli, Robert Derevski, Tomas Cihak.