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The Panasonic Trust Awards
Paul Lumley-Holmes – MSc in Automotive Engineering, Coventry University and Panasonic Trust Gold Medallist
 During the latter stages of 2005, I enrolled onto an
Automotive Engineering MSc which was fully funded by the contract company I
worked through at the time. However after completing the first year, I
decided a change of contract agency would be beneficial to my career but
this came with a serious problem – how could I continue to fund my MSc
course alone? My first year results were encouraging: I had achieved a post
graduate certificate with an average mark of 72%. This gave me the incentive
to try and continue through to completion using whatever means I could.
Unfortunately the cost proved prohibitive for me to contemplate funding the
remainder myself.
Through various different routes I managed to identify
the Panasonic Trust as a possible source and I was grateful when they part
funded the remainder of my course. This not only alleviated some of the
pressure and worry, but also enabled me to focus on completing my course and
concentrating on my career progression. The course culminated with a final
year project, which I completed in September 2008.
I feel somewhat proud of completing a demanding course
consisting of evening and weekend lessons and graduating with a Distinction
(1st) in November 2008. The impact this had on my career prospects was
almost immediate with me being invited to apply for a permanent position
within the company that I had been contracting to for 9 years; this is
something I could not achieve without the MSc result. Gaining permanent
employment has been extremely important as the current climate has forced
the industry that I work in to reduce staffing levels and cancel a large
number of agency staff in particular.
I can safely say that without the help of the
Panasonic Trust and the support of Ian and Anne, I would not have been able
to complete my MSc course and could have been facing the Christmas period
worrying about redundancy. The question now is which Doctorate I should look
to do…
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