City College Norwich has celebrated the success of its first 8 trainees to complete the 8-week BBC Make It Digital traineeship. The young people were presented with certificates by BBC Look East presenter Susie Fowler-Watt at an event held at MINT in The Forum.
The new traineeship has been developed by the BBC, in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions, in recognition of the vital part that digital skills play in a huge range of job roles across all business sectors and organisations.
The trainees spent 4 weeks at college getting to grips with topics such as how to use social media platforms effectively, producing multimedia content for web sites, search engine optimisation, branding, budgeting, marketing and project management.
They then undertook a 3-week work placement with an employer which gave the trainees the opportunity to put their skills into practice and gain valuable experience.
The traineeship concluded with a final week in college, where the trainees completed a team challenge, involving a live digital broadcast, bringing together the skills they had developed during the preceding 7 weeks.
Each trainee is moving on with a digital portfolio of their work and – as guests heard at the celebration event – greater self-confidence and a clear focus on securing a job or an Apprenticeship place as their next step.
One of the Make It Digital trainees is 22 year old Sam Kerr from Norwich, who found out about the traineeship through the job centre. She completed the placement element of the traineeship with Apprenticeships Norfolk, based at Norfolk County Council.
Commenting on the Make It Digital traineeship, Sam said: “I have learned about my own skills, like finding out that I had more confidence than I ever realised, learning how to do presentations professionally, networking as well. Meeting new people and making new friends has been a massive part of it as well. It’s been really good.”
Sam, who has now secured an Apprenticeship with Norwich-based Wide Angles TV, starting in the New Year, added: “If you’re into media, if you want to get into the media sector, this traineeship helps you so much with everything. Videos, photography, all of the digital side of it, there is so much to learn. Everything that we’ve done you wouldn’t think it’s possible to do in 8 weeks, but it is, and it’s really fun as well.”
Reflecting on the achievements of all of the trainees, Alison Harvey, Deputy Head of Employer Responsive Delivery at City College Norwich, commented:
“Over the initial 4 weeks that the trainees were in college we saw them blossom with the employability skills, with the technical challenges that they were doing, and in their confidence. During their placements they have all completed a social media project and done something really valuable with it. We’ve given them the tools and they’ve gone away and done it and that I think is what has impressed us most.”
City College Norwich is keen to hear from 16 to 24 year olds who would be interested in similar traineeship opportunities. The college would also like to hear from new employers who could offer a trainee a work placement.
For more information please contact City College Norwich’s Employer Responsive Delivery Unit on 0800 328 3616 or email [email protected].