Future skills, future audiences

‘What do you want to do - read something someone else has written, or write it yourself?’ This was a first introduction to news presenting – not for trainee reporters in a TV studio – but for young people from Year 9 in a specially adapted BBC bus in a playground in Bristol.

I was at the City Academy Bristol for a scheme called Talent Ticket – a collaboration between BBC Outreach, the University of the West of England (UWE) and ten schools from disadvantaged areas of the City. Over the course of two weeks, a team made up of BBC Bristol staff, freelancers and UWE students delivered workshops in news, sports reporting, natural history programmes, film-making, animation, drama and television make up for around 1500 pupils. And in a school where English is a secondary language for many students, less formal workshops such as street dance and also Foley recording (specialist sound effects for wildlife programmes) went down well, too.

The project has been going for nearly five years and in that time over 5,500 young people have taken part.

It’s easy to be cynical about the impact of the BBC’s outreach work. But the BBC Bristol schemes have a track record of success. BBC volunteers on that day included Dalvinder Kaur, a former pupil at the Academy now working for the BBC, and Billy Clarke – a BBC apprentice, working on a David Attenborough show. Both of these had joined the BBC through outreach.

Talent Ticket is impressive because it is the flagship element of a joined up approach to encouraging and supporting talent that reaches from primary to tertiary education. It’s a model of collaborative working and creativity, which has real impact for the young people involved and brings positive benefits to the BBC.

The students at the City Academy are not only potential media employees, they are also our future audience. The Talent Ticket programme provides a good return for BBC Bristol through providing and enriching their programmes and diversifying our staff talent base – helping create a more creative workforce which represents the entire city of Bristol.

It’s a two way process – we share skills and experience, but we learn about our audience, too.

The day ended with an assembly, showcasing some of the work that had been done during the day and also awards for outstanding work by the students. 

BBC staff and freelancers of all ages spoke about their work, including Archie Kalyana who told the students about working with Ryan Giggs and gave advice on a career in Sports reporting.

Billy’s advice? ‘You don’t need qualifications to be an apprentice. You just need to be passionate. Start making your own shows and get volunteering.’ And from Archie: ‘Work hard. No one wants to work with horrible people. So be nice, too.’

Which works for most careers, I think.

*BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community support and staff volunteering.