Born in Nepal and now a Regimental Training Officer with The Brigade of Gurkhas, Santanu Pradhan initially found the UK civilian higher education system challenging – but he has excelled at University of Staffordshire.

He has just completed a Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship with a distinction and has now been nominated in the Apprentice of the Year category of University of Staffordshire Business Awards by his course leader.

Dr Karen Castle, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Management at University of Staffordshire, said: “His commitment to learning and his dedication to his own development has been exemplary from the start, despite him finding the UK civilian higher education system challenging.

“It was experiencing these challenges that led to him developing study techniques that went on to benefit him throughout the course. This was brought home to me when he explained that before he started to learn anything, he had to convert it to Nepali before translating it back to English in order to make sense of the content of the modules.

“As his Course Leader, I became aware of this at an early stage and as a result looked to develop the Gurkha Learning Network for all the Gurkha students, currently 19.

“It began with a meeting between myself and Santanu to outline the remit for the network and to plan the development of the network. He has consistently provided support for other Nepalese students, acting as unofficial mentor and guide in translating the complex elements of the course.

“He supports at all the network meetings an support sessions, often meeting with individual students between network events.

“He has recently completed his degre, but has identified that he wishes to remain a key member of the group as an alumni of the University. He has engaged with all of this as well as carrying out his own studies for the past two years.

“He has recently learnt that, due to his interest and support for his fellow students here at the University, he has been shortlisted for the British Army`s Apprentice of the Year.

“Santanu is also a vociferous advocate for the Business School and for the University, promoting the CMDA at every opportunity within the Army. There are several students now on programme due to him promoting this within the organisation.

“He has, as a result of his success on the course, secured promotion within the Army.”

Santanu said: “I was pleasantly surprised and very thankful to the University of Staffordshire team to have been identified for an awards nomination in this way.”