University crowns podcast competition winners

The University of Derby has crowned the winners of a podcast competition it ran in collaboration with Gogglebox star and education expert Baasit Siddiqui.

The competition was open to students at schools who had signed up for Get Ready for Uni, a series of videos developed by Baasit in partnership with the university.

Designed for teachers to use with their students, the videos cover a variety of topics to support them as they prepare for their future and the transition to university – including personal confidence, research, academic writing, digital technology and cooking.

A podcast created by students from Alperton Community School, in Wembley, took first prize.

Their podcast, entitled ‘Would you marry an AI?’, explored themes around AI taking over humans.

The students were presented with their prize of £200 of Amazon vouchers each, as well as £500 for their school, by Baasit, podcast producer Pete Allen – both University of Derby graduates – and head of journalism Dr Gurvinder Aujla-Sidhu, at a ceremony at the university.

The runners-up were a team from Littleover Community School in Derby.

Baasit, who studied Business and Information Systems at the university, said: “Podcasting is the way forward and it is really important that students are building their transferable skills to have the confidence to share their concepts and ideas and show creativity and chemistry. These groups did extremely well.

“It has been great to work with the university to celebrate these students and to bring them here so they can see what the future might have in store for them.

“It’s also a fantastic opportunity to have professionals from the university and from industry confirm for the students and their teachers who came with them how talented they are and how much potential they have.”

Pete Allen, who worked in radio for 25 years and is the founder of Carrotcruncher Media, which creates podcasts for business clients, said: “I was delighted to support the competition because I’m passionate about podcasts and I am always looking for the next generation and the upcoming people who are going to be great tomorrow and are great today and I am finding them right here.”

Liam Dowson, head of schools and colleges engagement at the University of Derby, said: “More than 50 schools have now signed up to the video series, and we are hearing from teachers that there is a real need for this kind of content to help them guide students as they prepare to take their next steps.

“As a university rated Gold for Teaching Excellence, we are delighted to work with Baasit to support the next generation of game-changers, including our deserving winners.”