The big kick off!

My name is Pav and I am 19 years old, I left sixth form last year and took a gap year to pursue a career in radio. Before joining a BBC training scheme, the greatest experience in media I had was hospital radio. I was chosen to be part of the BBC Kick Off Trainee Sports reporting scheme for BBC Coventry and Warwickshire and it could not have been better timing. I had a year to fill and it was the London 2012 Olympics. When applying to join the scheme, it appeared to be a fantastic opportunity because you receive training, a mentor and it is 8 weeks long! Now that I have completed it, it exceeded expectations x 100.

One of the first parts was to do 2 days training in Bristol. Not only was it great fun but I learned so much about the BBC and gained all the skills I needed to be competent. I met the other Kick Off reporters and throughout the scheme it was great to see how everyone was getting on. I also met so many people that work for the BBC and kept them as contacts.

I received a mentor for the 2 months, Geoff, who was great help, friendly and knowledgeable. He guided me over the 8 weeks and I learnt a lot from him like tips, tricks and skills on how to make a great report and shared his knowledge of the industry. I made several reports during the scheme and I was surprised about how much freedom I was given during the process of it. I had to come up with ideas on a weekly basis and follow through, from doing the interviews to editing it all in to a package. At first I had a lot of guidance from my mentor but 8 weeks later I became very independent and could confidently make my own reports without any help. The scheme opened my eyes to all the different stages of how to make a report and the amount of effort that goes into it too.

In my spare time I asked to get involved with more at the station. I made the most of my opportunities and shadowed other colleagues at a variety of sports events for example the Women’s England Football matches and cricket matches at Edgbaston, which gave me an understanding of how an outside broadcast works. Working on these events was beyond exciting and over time I was able to be more helpful as my skills developed. I could make voxes and reports about the event to be broadcasted for BBC Coventry and Warwickshire. I also gave a hand to the news desk by writing cues, setting up guests, coming up with ideas and voxes. For BBC Introducing, I held the interviews for band of the month and picked up a lot of interviewing skills. The station was unbelievably friendly, and allowed me to chat on air regularly with presenters to give me more experience in that field as I want to be a presenter. Doing all of this extra work expanded my skills.

Post Kick Off, I was 100% sure I wanted to work in radio, so I first began to shadow regularly the weekend programmes at my local BBC station. Only now that I'm reflecting I have realised that I’ve picked up so many skills during BBC Kick Off - so much that I am able to work in the industry professionally. I had made so many contacts during the scheme that I was able to use them. After a lot of persistence I am now a casual Broadcast Assistant at BBC West Midlands and do a few other freelance jobs for BBC Asian Network, and worked on Sports Personality of the Year 2012. Although I am doing paid work, I am still doing some voluntary work for BBC Introducing at WM and beginning to help out with the sports there too. My contacts are building and I am learning every day.

I still keep in touch with my mentor, he has planned for me to practice doing some football commentary at matches and then receiving feedback. As I want to be a presenter, I expressed this interest to all of my colleagues and I would like to present a show at BBC WM. I am in the process of putting together a demo for my presenting. Some of my colleagues here at the BBC are presenters and they always give a helping hand from advice to contacts. My goals for next year is to be presenting, and to be working in radio full time. My gap year was to decide whether or not I would go to university, but I have got so far and gained so much experience that I have decided not to, and to keep on working hard and being persistant for what I want! BBC Kick Off has truly been a massive stepping stone to working in the industry. A few months ago I had little skills and knowledge about radio and was confused on how I was going to break in to the industry, but now I am working professionally, and continuing to make the most of every opportunity. This is something that I thought would take years to do.

*BBC Kick Off is a training scheme for would-be sports reporters from diverse backgrounds and with no previous media education or experience. Funded by BBC Outreach and English Regions, it gives the new journalists an opportunity to develop their experience and reporting skills within the BBC.