London South East Colleges student wins London Voices journalism award

Frustration over parking regulations in the area inspired a London South East Colleges student to voice his concerns in a written entry to the London Voices Journalism Competition 2018 –  landing him with the ‘Best Beginner Award’.

Health Care Support Worker, Taiwo Salami, has spent the last year studying GCSE English in the evenings at the College’s Bromley Campus.

As part of the course, Taiwo attended a workshop event for the London Voices competition run by Jem Collins from Journo Resources. Inspired by what he learned about journalism and writing at the workshop, he decided to research and submit an article on the harsh punishments dished out to London drivers and the disruption caused across the capital because of them. His inspiration came from realising how many issues motorists face being wrongly ticketed for capital gain, and he wanted to give a voice to London drivers who are being given a rough deal. 

The judges said: “This was a really nice bit of local newsy reportage with all the key ingredients needed for a good journalistic piece.”

Taiwo was over the moon to be selected as an award winner for the competition and he has decided to continue with his academic studying.  He is even thinking about producing more articles, because as he says: “Let’s face it, Londoners need a voice!”

Taiwo collected his award from sponsor Steve Jeffery at a high-profile event at the Art Workers’ Guild in Bloomsbury last week.

The London Voices Competition encourages and promotes emerging journalism talent across the capital, giving diverse individuals the opportunity to tackle both local and national issues. Londoners over the age of 14 across 21 boroughs sent in written articles, videos, audio files and multimedia entries which challenged the ways people think about their communities and discussed issues ranging from food markets to child obesity, from mental health to non-league football. The competition was open to anyone who lives, works or studies in London, and received entries from schools, FE Colleges, Universities and individuals. Around half of the entries were from people with no previous experience of journalism.