Posted: 14 January 2026
Students from the University Campus North Lincolnshire’s (UCNL) Business, HR and Management programme area were recently presented with the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance’s (LNAA) Creative Impact Award, thanks to their respective efforts as part of the charity’s Heli-Raiser fundraising competition.
Providing pre-hospital critical care to the people of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, The charity has an annual operational cost of £13m and is open all year round for every hour of the day, with each operation costing on average, £4,000.
In September, UCNL were approached by the LNAA to see if students wanted to take part in a six-week business-style fundraising competition, titled, Heli-Raiser, which was aimed at HE and FE education provisions.
Over the six weeks, 11 organisations participated, taking £100 seed funding and collectively raising a total of £18,381 for the charity.
Students from FdA Management and BA Applied Business Studies took part in the competition as two teams. The students from the FdA Management course created a sponsored run and also sold Christmas decorations, generating a total of £509.17. Our BA Applied Business Studies students put on a band night and made £151.
As a mark of the effort that they put into the scheme and all the creative ways in which they showcased the charity, students from the FdA programme were subsequently presented with the Creative Impact Award.
Jay Blackburn, HE Business Team Leader, said: “Employability skills are important for students that are entering into degree programmes, as when they graduate from that degree, they need to stand out in a crowded market to be able to showcase themselves from their peers.
“Competitions such as this realty support that development and build employability skills and add to the CV toolkit. When I was looking for feedback from the students, they said that they built on key skills such as communication, supporting and creativity. Furthermore, students were able to take topics discussed in class and use them in action in the real world.”
Moving forward, the team are looking to provide further support and build this event into curriculum to help not only a fantastic charity, but also aid student development.