Recruiting future talent
Thomas Martin
BBC Worldwide Youtube Channels
*BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility connects the BBC with communities in areas where we have large numbers of staff. One intitiative in London is the Summer Work Experience Scheme, which is open to students in Year 12 who live or study in the boroughs where we have large sites - Hammersmith & Fulham and Westminster. The placements will take place during the summer holidays, with various departments across the London sites hosting students. Over the last few weeks we've been meeting the applicants and matching them to placements.
The YouTubeteam here at BBC Worldwide are offering an internship placement on the scheme and as one of the supervisors I was asked to be one of the pool of recruiters that would be interviewing for all placements and departments in the scheme.
Split into three sessions of interviews we first had an informal chat with the teenage applicants about their taste in TV and Media and how they consumed it. It was interesting to hear a younger generation’s take on something that is so close to us we may lose sight of the bigger picture. Plaudits for BBC3 were resounding as were calls for more programming for those aged under 18.
Next came the interview rounds and I have to say how impressed I was by the candidates, how they presented themselves and what they had achieved at such a young age. Business builders, charity campaigners, community leaders and creatives who are producing and publishing professional level work.
I don’t remember being as focused and driven as many of the candidates when I was their age but I see it as a positive that teenagers leaving education to enter companies like ours are better equipped to take us forward than any generation has previously.
The hardest part was selecting which candidates would fit which placement as there are such a wide variety of opportunity being offered across departments including TV and Radio production, finance, legal and marketing.
We all look forward to hosting the participants later in the summer and trying to learn as much from them as they can from us.
