Inspiring teens who love science and technology to join the BBC
Glen Bertram
Manager Staffing & Business, Production Operations, BBC News
BBC Staffing and Business Manager, Glen Bertram is a BBC Ambassador for StemNet, and during the recent STEM careers event in Salford he gave a practical demonstration of his role to Year-9 students.
It is extremely rewarding to tell students that skills in maths, science and IT could translate into a BBC job.
In my day job I am one of six managers who are responsible for BBC News in Production Operations, and for Studios which are responsible for all News Studios and Technical staff. Over the years, I have undertaken around 50 different Outreach projects, which have spanned a couple of hundred events! I have always wondered how people view the BBC as a potential employer, and what do they know about the hundreds of roles behind the scenes. I have always passed on tips, skills and my experience to young people and advised them to think about a BBC career. Therefore becoming a StemNet Ambassador fitted my ‘campaign’, and I applied.
Glen giving a practical demonstration of his BBC role to Year-9 students.
The StemNet Ambassador event is extremely challenging, and we have to give teenagers a flavour of our role in an engaging, challenging and informative way – in just five minutes. In my current role, IT and maths are crucial to ensure around 260 members of staff output around 440 hours of live programming each week; and within a budget of £12million. Not an easy task - but I have developed a spread sheet that tracks all of this information, and any changes can instantly calculate a range of vital information.
For StemNet events, I then have to condense this information into five minutes, pitch it at the right level, and adapt it on the hoof should my new audience give a different response, before the group move on in a ‘speed dating’ style session.
Year- 9 students learning how technology and science features in BBC roles.
The children are on the whole extremely interested in BBC programmes and while my role is not as ‘exciting’ as others, I do find that they are engaged and understand elements which are pleasing and rewarding. Their questions range from ‘what is the hardest part of your job’, to the ubiquitous question - ‘how much do you earn’. It is extremely rewarding to tell students that skills in maths, science, English, IT and people skills could translate into BBC jobs!
It is fantastic to engage with this younger generation and to find out what they like to consume and how. Even if you are not at the coal face of programme making, your role is just as important and succession planning shouldn’t be left too late.
So, even if you can only make one event a year, treat yourself with a half day off out of the office to shout about how important your work is to the BBC, and how the students can also be as successful.
StemNet Careers Events are organised and hosted by BBC Outreach and gives Year-9 students the opportunity to meet BBC Stem Ambassadors who use science, technology, engineering or maths in their BBC roles. BBC North has 12 Ambassadors who during the event gave practical demonstrations on their roles and advice on GCSE STEM subjects.
