BBC Local Apprentices: Life in local radio after six months as an apprentice

Two of our local apprentices, Lesley Ross and Mike Stevens, talk about booking guests, being resilient, and interviewing Brian Blessed about North Korea.

Lesley Ross – BBC Radio Scotland

The first six months of the Local Apprentice Scheme have been crammed with amazing opportunities and experiences, as well as a fair few personal and professional challenges along the way.

I arrived at BBC Radio Scotland in Glasgow to join the Morning Call programme, which meant a 6.30am start. One thing I initially found challenging was ‘phone-bashing’ [finding potential guests] so early in the morning, because it usually meant waking people up with my phone calls.

One of the other things I found uncomfortable at first was ‘standing down’ guests – calling someone back to let them know we wouldn’t be using them in the programme after all. I certainly developed more of a thick skin and remembered how much our tutors talked about the importance of developing ‘resilience’ during our initial training weeks at the BBC Academy.

I think it’s been important to celebrate the little wins along the way during the apprenticeship, as it definitely helps you to remain positive and enthusiastic during the more challenging times.

Each ‘first’ gave me a massive boost – the first time I researched a guest who made it onto the programme; the first time I took an audio ‘clip’ from a guest to use it for a topic on the show and the first time I managed the studio desk for a whole programme.

A real highlight from my time in News was being given the chance to work for a few days in the BBC Parliamentary Unit inside the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh.

I’ve now joined the BBC News Generation 2015 team in Edinburgh, where I’ll be working until the General Election and I’ve already been given a brilliant opportunity to join up the BBC Local Apprentices with 200 young voters who are part of this exciting UK-wide project.

I plan to make the most of it – watch this space!

Mike Stevens – BBC Radio Lancashire

One of the reasons I love this job is the fact it’s totally different every single day. You can go from asking people in the street about potholes on a Monday, to talking to Brian Blessed about North Korea on a Tuesday (which actually happened).

The variety of the job is amazing. Over the past six months I’ve debated with pensioners about women bishops, been taught how to bird watch by school children, sung the Sound of Music with strangers in the street, interviewed musicians, actors, ministers and athletes and had a proper good laugh along the way.

The NCTJ college work comes in handy, especially learning media law, as you never know when you’re going to have to make a snap editorial decision and it’s usually at the worst possible time.

A large part of being a local broadcast assistant is being able to make the stories you’re telling interesting and accessible to the audience. This is why I love working in Lancashire – because the people make the stories.

Some days it can be difficult convincing people to let you try something new or different and it can feel like I’m banging my head against the newsroom wall

In saying that, if I explain exactly what I want to do and why, most people will tend to support my ideas and now-and-then, I can even win over some of the more senior journalists.

There’ll be more from the apprentices on the Academy website throughout the year. You can keep up-to-date with the latest via Twitter using #BBCLAS or via iPlayer Radio.