UNIVERSITY of Winchester students have received glowing praise from local employers after producing a number of promotional videos.

The media production students created the films as part of their degree course, with clients including Winchester City Council, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, The Army Training Regiment, Vanguard Helicopters Ltd and the Morn Hill ‘To Honour a Promise’ Project.

Among the tasks set was a short film celebrating ‘the Alfies’, the city council’s staff recognition awards. Simon Eden, chief executive of Winchester City Council, said: “It was a very professional job and done well.

“It was certainly a far more effective way of showing what we’re about than any number of PowerPoint presentations.” The Morn Hill Project saw students make a film to be shown at schools and to raise public awareness of a planned memorial to British, American, Commonwealth and Allied Forces of the First World War.

Speaking at a promotional event for the project in November, attended by Winchester MP Steve Brine and Hampshire’s Lord Lieutenant Dame Mary Faga, 20-year-old student Caroline Richardson, said: “One of the main challenges has been to make the video interesting for children and for the adults as well.”

County councillor Jackie Porter, project secretary, said: “The young people conveyed the story in a way we hadn't dreamed possible.”

Graham Mole, media lecturer at the university, said the projects would prepare students for a future as producers in the real world.

“I’m just so proud of them. They have worked hard to engage with their clients on these projects, often meeting difficult briefs and deadlines. The standard of their work has been extraordinary,” he said.