An aspiring journalist has had a feature published in The Independent after winning a competition organised by the national daily.

Brendan Sharp, of Clare, in Suffolk, won the newspaper’s Wyn Harness Prize for young journalists, for a feature examining the use of self-service checkouts in supermarkets.

The winning entry also earned him a £1,000 cheque, plus a two-week placement with the paper’s editorial team this summer.

He is pictured below receiving the prize from the paper’s editor, Amol Rajan.

Brendan, 22, has been “doggedly pursuing” a career in journalism since graduating in English literature from Anglia Ruskin University in 2012.

He said:  “It is a big deal to me. Winning it and going there are possibly two of the best experiences I will have.”

Amol said Brendan’s article was notable for its clarity of argument and aptness of subject.

“He addresses it in a compassionate and convincing way and looks destined for a long and glorious career in journalism,” he said.