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Students help tackle retail crime

18th January 2017

PUBLIC service students from South Eastern Regional College (SERC) have spent their academic term working on a campaign to help tackle retail crime in the Lisburn and Castlereagh District.

The students have been working on the project in collaboration with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Lisburn Commerce Against Crime and the Police and Community Safety Partnership.

The project involved students conducting extensive face-toface interviews with retailers as part of Northern Ireland’s first Retail Crime Audit which seeks to identity the extent and nature of crime being faced by retailers.

Ernie Knox, Chairman of Lisburn Commerce Against Crime, which has been commissioned to deliver the audit, explained the importance of the initiative.

He said: “We are delighted to have been given the responsibility to deliver Northern Ireland’s first Retail Crime Audit to ascertain how retailers are affected by crime. The feedback from the audit will be used to develop a Retail Crime Strategy and Action Plan which will represent ground-breaking firsts for Northern Ireland.

“I want to thank the students for their valuable support on the initiative whose help has been invaluable in conducting important surveys. Hopefully the experience has been beneficial to them in terms of developing skills in communication, market research and broadened their knowledge of businesses issues in the area.”

SERC public services tutor Irwin Pryce added: “The project has enabled students to add valuable knowledge and credibility to their CVs. Being the ‘face of’ the Retail Crime Audit, has helped students develop soft skills which are required for public services positions and to get the edge over other applicants in the highly competitive public services industry.

This form of project-based learning allows the students to gain hands on experience, while producing real business outcomes.

“Industry projects are a great vehicle for us to support businesses with the challenges they face as well as developing our student’s employability skills.

These examples give students, who are studying the equivalent to A’ Level, the opportunity to showcase what they are capable of.”

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