Advertising copywriting - Leicester University

The initial brief was to write an advertorial to accompany an ad to be placed in an academic yearbook. Only subsequently did we discover that they'd liked the opening para so much, they'd turned it into the ad!

To see the ad, click here

(In case you're interested, the rest of the advertorial read as follows...)

World class real-world training
De Beers trading subsidiary DTC needed to help their employees develop a ‘whole of diamond pipeline perspective’: a comprehensive understanding of their value chain, from mine to high street jeweller. We worked with them to develop a bespoke 12 month Graduate Certificate Programme for their South African and UK employees, combining web-based distance learning, specialist diamond academy training and international residential courses. An innovative blend of group learning, site visits and robust assessment helps students develop a thorough understanding of the business, and a real insight into its current and future challenges.

This exemplifies our approach to training. Grounded in a thorough understanding of the challenge and objectives; developed from first principles into a one-off solution that’s fit for purpose, flexible and robust; and drawing on the full array of educational approaches, from the traditional to the most technological. Resulting in solutions involving everything from classroom study to e-learning that are appropriate, that are economically viable, above all, solutions that really work.

The Lloyd Fraser Group needed to enable their upcoming managers to develop their management skills, and in particular to think for themselves and take the initiative. The company, which provides high quality IT based supply chain solutions to some of the UK’s best-known businesses, enrolled a group of their managers on our Diploma in Management and MBA programmes. Says their Group HR Controller, Arthur Clare-Hay: ‘Performance at work has improved significantly. It achieved exactly what we were looking for and the support from the University has been excellent.’

Turning ideas into revenues
The University also helps businesses leverage their own brainpower – and ours – to turn good thinking into good money.

East Midlands-based Magna Parva provides engineering services, hardware and innovative solutions to the world’s space, defence, aerospace and energy industries. We’ve been working closely with them from within a year of the company’s 2005 inception, starting with a successful collaborative bid to the European Space Agency. It was a clear winner for both parties: the University gained an industrial partner with both hardware and highly skilled staff; Magna Parva gained access to world-class scientific, technology and research capabilities which complemented its own resources.

A second successful joint bid to ESA saw a ground-breaking collaboration on the design and build of a device for use on a mission to detect life on Mars. Magna Parva undertook mechanical design and delivered the hardware; the University handled the research and technology and provided product assembly and testing.

Such collaborations make eminently good sense for both parties. Typically, the commercial partner gains access to a high-calibre intellectual resource and some world class technology, while the University gains from its partner’s in-house expertise – as well as its commercial savvy and contacts – further reinforcing its ability to perform as a serious player in the business world. And of course the constant interchange of personnel and ideas generates catalytic spinoffs neither party could have anticipated, much less achieved alone. Magna Parva Director Andrew Bowyer says: ‘The Project, Science and Business Development teams at Leicester have made building a long-term partnership with the University easy and rewarding, from which not only have exceptionally innovative technologies been developed but people too.’

The University is also always seeking partners who can capitalise on its research. For just a few examples: companies in paint and automotive emissions sampling, or breath analysis for healthcare and security, who could apply its air fingerprinting technology; Health and Local Authorities and others like the automotive industry, looking to control pollution, who could use CityScan, which identifies fuel combustion waste in urban areas; and environmentally aware packaging and retail companies who could exploit Plastics from Potatoes, which demonstrates the commercial viability of turning plants into biodegradable plastics.

Talk to us
Whether you’re looking to help your people develop their potential, or just particular new skills, in ways that suit them, at a budget that suits you, or whether you have an idea you’d like to exploit – or resources that need just the right thinking to put them to work - give us a call. You’ll find at University of Leicester we talk your language.