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The Institute of Financial Services student investor challenge is the UK's largest investment competition for schools. The competition gives small teams two virtual investment portfolios of £100,000. With this they are challenged to make both short-term and strategic trades over 3 months. This year, five hundred teams of students have outperformed the stock market and secured places in the Semi-finals. In the final they will have a shot at an all-expenses paid trip to New York as well as a £2,000 cash prize. On the line was Vice Principal of IFS University College, Alison Pask for more.

Welcome to today's edition of The Apprentice Investor. Regular listeners to the show will know that our Apprentices are five members of the Share Radio team who've each been given fifteen thousand pounds of virtual money to build their own individual share portfolios. They have a minimum of eight stocks, which they've been buying and selling through The Share Centre. So, three months into the New Year how are they doing? Are they in the money...or are they out of pocket? Apprentices Alexi Phillips and Valsa de Winter are in the studio and standing by with plenty of advice is Share Radio's Senior Analyst Ed Bowsher.

This is Emerging Opportunities, the one and only show on your radio dedicated to global emerging markets. Today featuring Gavin Serkin, the author of Frontier: Exploring the Top Ten Emerging Markets of Tomorrow, and the Managing Editor of Frontier Funds, Consultant Talib Qayyum & Matthias Martinsson of Tundra Fonder.

Share Senior Analyst Ed Bowsher joins Georgie Frost in the studio to discuss a fall in London tourism, NPower cutting over a fifth of its workforce, Chancellor Osborne's u-turn on pension changes, fee-free accounts, and Moonpig apologising for Mothers' Day bungle.

David Emm, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab, joins Share Radio to talk about the increasing number of companies being attacked by Ransomware. Ransomware, one of the fastest-growing types of cyber threats, encrypts data on infected machines, then typically asks users to pay ransoms in hard-to-trace digital currencies to get an electronic key so they can retrieve their data.

The Digital Media Strategies Conference is an annual affair organised by the Media Briefing Organisation and has publishers from all over Europe sharing problems and best practice. Digital Strategist, Nic Newman, is speaking at the event and he joins Share Radio to discuss his talking points.

Marc Shoffman discusses the topic of debt with Senior Network Coordinator for the Church Credit Champions, David Barclay, and Andy Burns, from organisation Capital Mass. He looks at the different ways small communities take on the challenge to campaign against poverty and inequality.

Nick Peters open Shop Floor by analysing how some company bosses can turn abusive over time, despite being understanding and fair with their staff at first. With Russell Johnson, from Michigan State University, they talk about a recent research into what causes the mood switch for many employers. Should the state take control over the lives of the self-employed? Bright Blue think tank recommend a change in policies that will benefit those who run their own business as much as those regular employees. Nick speaks to David Kirby on the matter. Nick also looks at the absence of ethnic minorities in top jobs, particularly the British Muslim communities. In a report called Rising, published by the think tank Demos, its author Louis Reynolds explains why many individuals are missing out on job opportunities. Finally, Nick looks at low wage levels. TUC low pay adviser Paul Sellers discusses why the wages market is so tight.

Linda speaks to Culture Secretary John Whittingdale at the largest launch of digital radio event in London this week. The event included Share Radio as part of the 18 radio stations that went live this month. Together they discuss what does this mean for the industry and the benefits of digital radio.

Linda Lewis focuses on electric cars this week and speaks to Pod Point, a Shoreditch-based company that makes charging units for electric cars that have been gradually been installed in homes, car parks and airports. They describe themselves are the UK’s largest suppliers of electric charging solutions. She speaks to Erik Fairbairn, CEO of the company.