Joanne McCaffrey, a Pharmacy student at Queens University, Belfast has been awarded the title of British Council IAESTE Northern Ireland Trainee of the Year 2007.

Joanne, from Kinawley, won the first prize for her work placement in Brazil

At the awards' final on 5th November, Joanne told the assembled audience all about her summer placement with FarmaCentre, a community pharmacy in Nhandeara, Sao Paulo.

During her placement, Joanne also got to spend time in a biomedical and research laboratory, specialising in the manufacture of heart valves for humans, and she also carried out DNA extraction along with a Ph.D student at the local University.

Joanne describes her placement in Brazil as a, "life changing experience: "It provided me with the opportunity to experience a variety of pharmacy-related enterprises which has changed my outlook and the direction I intend my future career to take".

The British Council Trainee of the Year Award brought together nine of the 48 students from Northern Ireland who took up work placements abroad with the British Council in 2007.

The prizes were sponsored by White Young Green, Queen's University Belfast, and Armagh Observatory.

The British Council's IAESTE (International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience) programme arranges work placements around the world for students of IT, engineering, science and architecture.