According to the World Economic Forum, critical thinking and problem-solving skills are at the top of the skills list that employers believe will grow in prominence over the next five years.  Yet we continue to passively meander through our working week; going to meetings where there’s no one leading and there are too many invitees, observing team members who are distracted or doing something else.  We leave the room feeling frustrated at the time wasted, and none the wiser on how we’re going to solve the problem we came together to discuss.

A few stats I found on time wasted in meetings (US research):

·      71% of senior managers believe meetings are unproductive and inefficient

·      Only 50% of employees feel their ideas are heard during meetings

·      An estimated 50% of meeting time is spent on irrelevant topics

·      Companies with fewer than 50 employees waste an average of $18k per year on unproductive meetings, whilst for companies with over 100 employees it’s an average of $420,000

What if we turned these lazy, lacklustre meetings into something positive?  What if we started running bite-sized workshops instead, putting our energy into creating experiences for participants to problem-solve together?

Do workshops take more time and effort to plan?

Initially, yes.  But … the more you do, the more confident you’ll become, and the quicker you’ll be at designing activities that actually help solve problems, where everyone leaves the room with an agreed plan of action that’s been created by you all.

What’s the difference between a meeting and a workshop?

I use the following distinction to guide me.  If your goal is simply to share or exchange information then a meeting will suffice.  If your goal is to solve a problem where you need input from people with different skills and experience (those skills and experience will be based on the topic and outcome you’re after), and that will result in actionable options, then try running a workshop.

5 tips to get you started

1. Only invite participants who will contribute, and have a diverse set of skills and experience

2. Share the workshop purpose and goals with participants beforehand, so they know what to expect.  And don’t be afraid to give them pre-work to help get them into the zone beforehand

3. Design activities that will play to the strengths of the participants and different learning styles – consider a mix of discussion, individual reflection and group work

4. Don’t be afraid to flex the agenda if you feel like another way might be more effective in achieving your goal

5. Always capture actions with owners at the end, to ensure you keep up momentum after the workshop

New year challenge – facilitating positive change

Give it a go in January, and let me know how you get on … Tell your team and clients that you’re trying something different, and encourage them to do the same.

If you need help, get in touch.  I’m running a Workshop Wizardry ‘workshop’ on 31st January, which will be packed with handy tools and techniques to build your workshop confidence. I also offer tailored in-house sessions with your team with 20% off for BCI members.

On 24 November, we celebrated the first group of interns who took part in the Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme with Babbasa as part of the OurCity2030 Pathway into Creative & Tech.

We had a wonderful night celebrating everyone’s achievements over the past six months. The graduation event, at the Gather Round co-working space in Bristol, brought together the brilliant interns plus many of the programme contributors, friends and family to reflect on the successes and learnings from the scheme.

We launched the programme earlier this year. It is aimed at young people aged 18-24 from diverse backgrounds wanting to gain more insight and real experience in the creative industries.

Two of the biggest challenges facing the sector are a long-term skills shortage and a lack of workforce diversity. This was highlighted by Bristol Creative Industries’ A Creative Force to Be Reckoned With report which found that increasing diversity and inclusion is a significant priority for six in 10 creative firms in Bristol, but almost half said they want help finding diverse talent from underrepresented groups.

The internship programme was designed specifically to tackle those issues and create more inclusive workplaces. We were delighted that brilliant agencies from the BCI member community stepped up to provide three month placements to the 14 interns:

At the end of the first placement, three of the interns used the experience to explore other projects, while 11 stayed to undertake a second placement.

What happens next: Five of the interns got jobs

As the pilot programme comes to an end, here’s an update on how taking part in the initiative impacted on the interns and what they plan to do next:

Abdifatah Kheyre is going travelling for a while but has some exciting plans to launch a new project with a friend.

Abdur-Rahman Shafi has been offered a continuation at his first placement at Noble where he will be doing an internship extension, with the view for being promotion to digital marketing executive after six months.

Ahmed Ismail is considering his options in design and software development.

Amy Smith has been offered a role as production runner at Aardman on an upcoming project.

Kayjay McDonald-Ferguson is looking to continue with his freelancing projects in design and strategy and is set to start a bootcamp coding course.

Laurel Beckford has been working with Babbasa on the organisation’s social media campaigns and is looking for further work in film production and social media.

Mohd Wani has gone on to study an MA in information experience design at The Royal College of Art.

Omar Ibrahim has started a front-end web development bootcamp and will continue to study whilst trying to get more work experience. He is looking for a junior level role in front-end web development.

Priscilla Kodjo is staying on at her placement at Time Machine Designs as a freelance concept artist.

Sara Matloob has applied to study with the Chartered Institute of Marketing and hopes to build a career focused on public relations and the experiential sector.

Sophie Kirk is continuing to pursue her career in film and television art departments, with her improved graphic design skills opening up more opportunities for freelance work.

Seren Spooner was offered a job as a junior designer at Armadillo, her first placement.

Touka Mostafa led an EDI audit at one of her placements and delivered her findings to the board. She has recently accepted an account executive role at Armadillo, one of the participating agencies.

Yasmina El Khatib hopes to continue her education and study a modelmaking course with a focus on fabrication. For now, she is looking for a design and creative role to allow her to save for her masters.

Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme intern graduation

The impact the programme had on the interns

We asked some of the interns to reflect on taking part in the programme.

”The programme helped me find myself, be a better human and chase my dreams.”
Abdifatah Kheyre

“This internship really has made my dream career happen. The continued support throughout has been great. I have also made some friends that I will have for life.”
Amy Smith

”I took many learnings from the experience, but above all I learnt the importance of being an active learner. In a work setting it is important that you can communicate with the different departments and not be afraid to ask for what you want. In both agencies I felt comfortable to be myself and felt listened to. I like that the internship was tailored to what I needed.”
Kayjay McDonald-Ferguson

”Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t always a straight path, and I was never comfortable to put my hand up and say I want to learn more. But I have to say, I’m so glad I sat in the uncomfortable space for a little bit because I pushed past that point, I managed to develop and grow in so many different ways. ”
Touka Mostafa

”I loved seeing how many agencies were interested in diversity and inclusion and I really enjoyed the networking opportunities that came with the internship programme. I also enjoyed learning new skills during our Friday sessions and watching all of the interns develop new skills that they’re proud of.”
Sara Matloob

Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme cohort one: A short film

For more from the interns, participating agencies and other who took part in the programme, watch this brilliant short film: 

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More Information

The experiences of the participating agencies

The Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme is not possible without the fantastic agencies who take part and provide placements for the young people to gain valuable experience.  

Here, some of the agencies reflect on their experiences:   

“The best businesses need the best talent. The best talent is diverse. This programme has helped us collectively engage that talent.”
Nina Edmunds,
Halo

“We’ve always aspired to have an internship programme that promotes diversity and inclusion and encourages the community to open more doors, yet time and resources have been a barrier to achieving this. By joining forces with Bristol Creative Industries, Babbasa and other member agencies, we were able to make it happen.”
Lucy Rees, Newicon

“Collaborating with peers from other participating creative agencies has been a great experience. It has allowed us to actively contribute to shaping the program while exchanging ideas and learning from one another, particularly in areas around HR, people & culture, and innovative working practices.”
Anthony Butterfield,
Aer Studios

“We wanted to be challenged in our DE&I efforts. We hoped this scheme would help us push forward on our learning and DE&I journey and it has done exactly that.”
Abigail Croft,
Diva

“Our intern was really keen to learn all the different roles within the agency and really engaged in everything she was doing. Seeing her confidence grow each week, so she was asking the right questions to allow her to execute the task in front of her was a real highlight. The fact we could see the talent was there enough to offer her a job shows what an impact she made, and that is the true highlight.”
Jeremy Bourton,
Armadillo

“This amazing opportunity provides a springboard for young people with a paid placement that can really make a difference to their professional development. On the other side of the coin, it’s made me a more rounded professional and helped me to evolve.”
Matt Woodman,
Atomic Smash

“The BCI Internship Programme is a golden opportunity to partner with community-facing organisations. It is a real opportunity to learn as well as teach, whilst being supporting by BCI who follow the interns through the whole process.”
Ceilia Hunt, Aardman Animations

Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme intern graduation

All of the interns are now Bristol Creative Industries members. Please do reach out to them if you are looking for collaborations or for young people to fill junior roles. We will also be welcoming them to Bristol Creative Industries events in 2024, so you will get a chance to meet them.

We look forward to welcoming back the cohort as ambassadors for the programme in 2024 and to help inspire the next group of interns.

Want to get involved and offer placements to interns?

Conversations for the 2024 Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme have begun with Babbasa as part of the next OurCity2030 Pathway into Creative & Tech.

If you run a creative business in Bristol and are interested in hearing more about how to get involved, contact Bristol Creative Industries membership manager Alli Nicholas on [email protected]

Big thanks to @eljaybriss for the images.

How Do Stories Work? Part 6: How is the attention economy changing the way we tell stories?

Dear Storyteller,

As filmmakers, we must adapt and evolve with the times to capture and maintain our audience’s attention while keeping purpose and authenticity at the core of our storytelling.

Many purists would consider the idea of ‘versioning a story’, that is adapting it for different ‘channels’, to conflict with the very soul of the storyteller.  A story should simply have the time it needs to be well told.

But what works ‘best’ depends on the context of the telling. We no longer communicate sat face-to-face around an open fire but through multiple and proliferating digital media. We have been suddenly removed from millions of years of storytelling evolution.

However, the need to communicate across multiple media can be an invaluable opportunity for stories to reach and connect with wider audiences. Film narratives need to be crafted into multiple variants to engage, not as auteur works of art, but as purposeful tools with a central unifying message.

In times of seemingly dwidling attention spans, the pressure is on to communicate the essence of a message more quickly.

But how fast can you tell a story with a sense of context, character, place and emotion, whilst also letting it breathe, before the story falls apart and the essence is lost?

Of course, our attention span depends on viewing context and on how invested the audience is in your subject before they take their seat.

So, you need different versions to engage different audiences watching with different levels of pre-existing attenuation to your message, from the active listener to the casually curious.

Is it possible to tell a complex story dealing with complexity, multiple characters, and the nuance of human emotion in one minute?

Well yes, but not in one step. Editing, unlike say sculpting, is a non-destructive process of refinement. So by a careful process of distillation, each step yields a shorter yet distinct form that can be used to connect with audiences in different ways, each time stripping away more of the context and complexity whilst bringing the essence more sharply into focus.

Here’s a recent example of this creative versioning process in action.

The brief from our colleagues ImpactEd Group was to reveal the transformation of a child enabled by the concentrated attention of an adult, herself guided by the skilful evaluation of data.

Each version of the film had to convey more and more succinctly both the context and emotion of a transformative experience.

How can data help transform the life of a child?

Edit phase 1 (8 days)

5’00″ version for a Campaign Launch for a pre-invited captive audience

Edit phase 2 (2 days)

2’30” version for Branded Channels for a partially engaged remote audience that has navigated to your domain

Edit phase 3 (1 day)

1’00″ version for Social Media for an audience with passing curiosity surfing your content via media feeds guided by hashtags and leading text.

What remains is the transformative essence of a relationship. An adult really listening to a child.

“I didn’t have that one person I could talk to. And now I have.”

So attention is in short supply.

As the attention economy pulls us into a vortex of distraction, we need to fall in love again with being.

And films, as channels of emotion, can remind us of the very essence of who we are.

All we need is someone to listen, and someone to listen to.

How do stories work? A newsletter for storytellers, changemakers and dreamers:

SUBSCRIBE HERE

Got a story to tell?  Or purpose to communicate? Need some friendly advice?

🎯 Please get in touch.

 


#AttentionEconomy #CreativeProcess #FilmmakingProcess #SparkFilms #FilmsToBelieveIn #TurningChanceIntoDestiny #Purpose #Authenticity #Filmmaking #Storytelling #HowStoriesWork #DocumentaryFilmmaking #WhatMakesAGoodStory #FilmProductionBristol #VideoProductionBristol #BristolFilmmakers #BristolStoryTellers #DocumentaryFilmmakerBristol

Moonraker VFX, a Bristol-based Visual Effects Studio, took part in the RTS Futures Festival yesterday, offering valuable insights, advice and information to aspiring individuals seeking a career in the television industry.

The free event took place at M Shed on Bristol’s Harbourside and drew over 400 young attendees, where a range of the city’s media organisations were on hand to give careers advice.

Hosted by the Royal Television Society, the RTS Futures Festival provided a platform for industry professionals to connect with graduates and students, guiding them through the complexities of the modern broadcasting landscape.

Moonraker—known for its groundbreaking work in Natural History programming including the BBC’s recent Earth series—engaged with attendees, sharing knowledge and experiences to inspire the next generation of talent.

Simon Clarke, Creative Director at Moonraker, commented, “Participating in the RTS Futures Festival was a fantastic opportunity for us to connect with the bright minds set to become future leaders of the television industry in the decades to come. Moonraker’s presence at the event underscores the studio’s commitment to fostering talent and contributing to the growth of the sector.”

RTS Futures aims to help graduates and those in the early stages of their career to progress and learn about different areas of television. It has an ongoing calendar of events, learn more: https://rts.org.uk/rts-futures

Join Weston College in the heart of Bristol to learn more about supporting the next generation of creatives! Are you looking at offering work placements? Internships?

Looking to grow your team?

Give back to a new generation through guest lecture and project work?

Want to find out more about Weston College? We may surprise you….

The Faculty of Creative Arts Employer Forum is designed to work alongside industry to deliver industry aligned curriculum, work experiences, progression and employment routes and pipeline talent. Courses covered at Weston College and University Centre Weston include:

Game & Animation

Creative and Digital Media

Broadcast, Journalism and Podcasts

Performing Arts and Theatre

Art and Design – including fashion, textiles and business

Photography

https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/creative-arts-and-design-courses-16-18-year-olds

Tuesday 7th November

6-8pm

Bristol Training Institute, 12 Colston Avenue, BS1 4ST

RSVP [email protected]

If you have individuals in your workforce that have responsibilities to manage projects or people; why not offer them the opportunity to gain formal training alongside their day to day duties? If cost is an issue, we can help access funding for you to develop your team at no extra charge and no change to the quality of delivery.

We have learned that nearly 26% of senior managers and leaders and half (52%) of managers also claimed they have had no formal management or leadership training. The rise of the ‘accidental manager’ has become part of many company – regardless of size and sector.

‘Accidental managers’ without proper leadership training contributing to almost one in three workers walking out, research finds (peoplemanagement.co.uk)

A separate CIPD study discovered growing evidence of the importance of line management. According to the survey, the quality of line management has an impact on employees’ health and wellbeing.

We can help

On the 22nd November at 11am, we will be holding an information webinar via Teams, where we will take you through the Management Apprenticeships or Non Apprenticeship training route.

The trainings will take place in Weston-super-Mare and Central Bristol – starting in January 2024.

This investment in your people will help your business to:

This training could be part of fully funded depending on the training undertaken. We can also underpin the training with Insights Discovery or help continue training into project management, HR and more.

There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the webinar with Business Partnership Manager, Lynsey McKinstry and arrange a follow up with our Employer Apprenticeship Advisor, Becky Vincent, and our Specialist Area Manager, Louise Perkins. You will learn all about the Institute of Leadership and Management development for middle managers and routes for Senior Managers.

To find out more information, and to book your place, click here!

We look forward to seeing you there.

Source: ‘Accidental managers’ without proper leadership training contributing to almost one in three workers walking out, research finds (peoplemanagement.co.uk)

Watch the recording of this webinar now

As part of Bristol Technology Festival 2023, our founder Harry explores the ins and outs of UX design, and why a user-centric approach is absolutely crucial.

In this webinar he explains why UX design is so much more than just wireframing, and how it should be seen as a process rather than a solution. Harry also uncovers how a clear UX-led strategy can lead to a long term competitive advantage.

Bristol-based Professional Apprenticeships celebrates an Ofsted Outstanding grade across all the grading criteria at its first full inspection. This accomplishment is such a rarity with only a handful of apprenticeship providers achieving this result.

In 2021 Professional Apprenticeships gained the highest grade in an Ofsted provider monitoring visit and then went on to win the award for Apprenticeship Provider of the Year.

Established in 2016 by Carina Bush and Adam Rooke, Professional Apprenticeships is now a leading provider of digital, technology, marketing, and business apprenticeships. The Outstanding grading reflects the success of its apprentices with an impressive 100% first time pass rate in End Point Assessments and 81% achieving a distinction.

Both Carina and Adam are former apprentices themselves and attribute their success to having the lived experience of starting their careers by taking the apprenticeship route.

In its report Ofsted states of the Professional Apprenticeships’ team: “Apprentices receive continually improving, high-quality teaching that develops their knowledge, skills, and behaviours. Consequently, nine-tenths of apprentices achieve a merit or distinction in their final assessments”.

Commenting Carina said: We’ve worked so hard to deliver the best recruitment, training, and support to our apprentices and employers, and the whole team is immensely proud of this achievement. We have lived and breathed apprenticeships for so long and we are excited to support more apprentices and employers throughout England.”

High-quality training providers like Professional Apprenticeships have never been more vital. They not only address the pressing recruitment challenges faced by employers but also offer individuals an entry point into new and rewarding careers.

The relationship between this remarkable training provider and the Bristol’s booming digital and technology sector exemplifies the potential of apprenticeships to drive progress, both for individuals and the wider industry.

How Do Stories Work? Part 5 On myths and Madness?

“I didn’t enjoy butchering this magnificent creature, but you apparently need a wake-up call that even you should be able to understand.”

Grant Hadwin

 

Dear Storyteller,

Domicide is the act of destroying one’s own home.  It can also be a tendency, carried out through the repetition of thousands of hidden actions, mostly out of sight and out of mind.

I’ve been wanting to write a post on this subject for a while, but have been holding back, waiting for a triggering moment.  And last Wednesday that moment arrived when the Sycamore Gap came crashing into the cosy living room of our collective imagination.

The loss of a beautiful lone tree fuelled a predictable outcry.  The media fuelled the outrage, baying for the punishment of some ‘degenerate youth’, before pivoting to turn with less outrage on a ‘crazy old man’, perhaps a ‘former lumberjack’.

What is it about one tree that causes us such outspoken agonies while the destruction of the wider world continues unabated with passive acceptance?  Could this have something to do with the power of the totem, working as symbolic pressure valve to channel and dissipate our collective sense of grief and loss at the destruction of our home, releasing our outrage so we can return to business as usual?

When I heard the news, my first thought was not for the tree but for the person who had chopped it down.  What could have been their motivation?  For this must have been a carefully planned act, and so can’t be easily dismissed as some moment of ‘madness’.  No, to me, this felt like a howl of pain, a wake-up call that I recognised immediately.

In 2007 I started a 7-year filmed investigation into the motivations of another ‘environmental terrorist’, who orchestrated another attack on an ancient tree in an apparently mindless ‘crime against nature’.  But it was not that simple.

Desperate times call for desperate actions.

On the islands of Haida Gwaii, a remote archipelago off Canada’s Pacific coast, stood a giant and genetically unique Sitka Spruce, known to the indigenous Haida people as ‘K’iid K’iyass’.  Owing to the unusual yellow pigmentation of its needles, outsiders called it ‘The Golden Spruce’.

There it stood on the banks of the Yakoun River for 250 years, protected from the enveloping tide of industrial logging in its own protected reserve, complete with tourist trail and signage.  Until one night in January 1997, when a lone former logger and timber engineer called Grant Hadwin arrived under the cover of darkness to cut it down.

A Mythical Being

For the Haida, ‘The Golden Spruce’ was much more than an object of scientific curiosity, a beautiful ‘freak’ of nature. For them this was a mythical being, a boy transformed into a tree, a sacred elder that stood as a wonderous manifestation of the connectedness of all things- a kin-centric belief system.

And Grant Hadwin, himself an instrument of the system of industrial extraction, had come to destroy it in a self-proclaimed act of protest.  What kind of madness was this?

This is an extract from the letter that Grant wrote to the authorities justifying his actions:

“Dear Sir or Madam,

I don’t care much for ‘freaks’ whether they teach in University classrooms, sit in corporate board rooms, perform in the circus or are put on display as examples of old growth forest.

I mean this action to be an expression of my rage and hatred towards university trained professionals and their supporters whose ideas, ethics, denials, part truths and attitudes appear to be responsible for most of the abominations done towards life on this planet made in the name of ‘progress’.

I didn’t enjoy butchering this magnificent creature, but you apparently need a wake-up call that even you should be able to understand.

It was challenging to leave this majestic plant in a temporary vertical position.

The next storm will cause this one thousand year old plant to fall into or near The Yakoun River.  Please find enclosed some of the last known photographs of ‘The Golden Spruce’. 

Yours truly,

Grant Hadwin.”

And this was my film interpretation of the aftermath of what had happened.

The Aftermath

What insight might this story give us into the mind of the individual who took down our cherished Sycamore?

And what does this particular choice of totem, the lone tree left standing in a sea of devastation, tell us about the timeless forces of corruption at work on humanity, and about our separation from the land, our natural home?

Two Solitary Trees and The Legacy of Extraction

The Golden Spruce came with its own ancient mythology, with a story that began with the murderous arrival of the Europeans in 1774.  The British came bearing ‘gifts’ of blankets laced with smallpox, hoping to wipe the indigenous people from the face of their land.  70% of the Haida population died in the enveloping plague, with lone survivors retreating into the sanctuary of the forest.  Among them were a village elder and his grandson.  As they fled the village, the boy ignored his grandfather’s advice not to look back, and found himself rooted to the ground, a boy transforming into a tree.

And there K’iid K’iyass stood for 250 years, one tree preserved by the logging company as a living cultural artefact, while the rest of the ancient forest was cut down and hauled to the mill, first as masts for ships of war, and then to build the frames of aircraft that brought death from the skies.

And the Sycamore Gap bears the same legacy.  A lone tree, left in a sea of devastation, the land wiped clean by the civilising forces of Rome as far as the wall of Hadrian, built to keep out the savages who still lived from the land and who resisted agriculture, taxation and wage slavery.  The wall was there to keep the money economy of Rome safe and sound until the empire burned under Nero, incinerated by the flames of its own self-serving corruption and arrogance.

How do stories work? A newsletter for storytellers, changemakers and dreamers:
SUBSCRIBE HERE

 

Got a story to tell?  Or a purpose to champion? Need some friendly advice?
PLEASE GET IN TOUCH

#Storytelling #Filmmaking #Authenticity #Purpose #Meaning #FilmsToBelieveIn #DocumentaryFilmmaking #FilmProductionBristol #BristolFilmmakers #DocumentaryFilmmakerBristol

 

Clare Leczycki shares an update on the Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme.

We are just over halfway through the pilot year of the Bristol Create Industries Internship Programme, a scheme set up and funded by Bristol Creative Industries and and a group of members. It gives young people from under-represented backgrounds a chance to explore the different roles in the creative industries.

The programme, delivered in partnership with Babbasa as part of the #OurCity2030 initiative, provides interns with placements at two different agencies over a six-month period.  

It aims to:

Our interns switched placements this month and are now working in their second agency.  

During this process, several opportunities came up and we off-boarded three of the interns early. 

Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme

Seren Spooner was offered a job at Armadillo as a junior designer and decided to take the opportunity to move into full- time work.  

“As a graphic designer, I was initially unsure about going into client service, but quickly found that I really enjoyed it. Agency structure has been a highlight for me and being openminded about all the different roles and opportunities available within an agency has been really interesting. It has allowed me to see where my experience and skills can fit with an organisation like Armadillo.

“I really wouldn’t be anywhere without this programme; it has made the transition out of university so incredibly easy. To have a variety of roles put in front of you is amazing, and even though I won’t be changing my agency and role in the second part of the programme, as I was offered a full-time position, to have the opportunity to switch and learn new skills at a new company makes such an impact.

“The support that you get from your peers throughout the programme is also so impactful, we have all been there for each other throughout this process which has been amazing.”

Mohd Wani decided to go back into education to do a masters in UX at one of the most prestigious universities in the UK: 

“This programme has given me a new career path in an industry I never thought would be for me. By moving into UX design from graphic design, I can now see myself excelling more in this role than I ever could’ve imagined in graphic design.

“In four months on this programme working in UX, I can see more improvement in myself than in three years of training in graphic design.

“The work I have completed at Atomic Smash has helped me to secure a place at the Royal College of Art, which I will be starting later this year. But I have also been offered a full time by Atomic Smash when I finish my course, so I know my future is secure.

“The programme has taught me great networking skills, and different ways of talking to people. The skills sessions we do each week has also given me so many additional skills outside of my day-to-day job which are so valuable, and that is all thanks to this programme.

“The work I have done because of the programme and the skills that I now have, has helped me get rid of my past feelings of ‘I don’t belong here’, and now I know that I do.

“I would tell anyone thinking of joining the programme to just do it. It will give you so many different opportunities to find out what you are good at, what you are in to, and what your career path can be.”

Laurel Beckford is now working with Babbasa’s communications team:

 ”The BCI internship programme is one of the best out there for any individual looking to get their foot into the creative sector. The amount of support I have received is incredible and gives you so many opportunities to build up your skills.

“I was made aware of the programme through Babbasa and worked with them to help me with the process of getting in touch with BCI.

“Before I came on this programme, I didn’t know one thing about building a website, and now I can and have learnt so many skills.

“I have travelled to London with my agency, met clients face to face, and been involved in a photoshoot, which has been a real highlight.

“The BCI Internship programme can help anyone make their way into the creative sector and will give you the chance to do that.”

Whilst we are sad to be saying goodbye to some of the interns, we are incredibly excited to see opportunities created by the network and it’s brilliant to see the young people thrive and move onto the next stage of their career. We look forward to hearing more about how they are getting on in the coming months.

Other interns have also been offered jobs but have chosen to complete the internship programme, while some are exploring further training to hone their skills.

You can see the agencies currently involved in the progamme here.  

Interested in getting involved?

The pilot programme will finish at the end of November. We will then review and reflect on the learnings from the interns and participating agencies to see how the scheme can be further developed and expanded. We are particularly excited to be working more closely with the team at Babbasa to develop our onboarding and training processes for the next round.

Conversations for the 2024 Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme has begun. If you run a creative business in Bristol and are interested in hearing more about how to get involved, contact BCI membership manager Alli Nicholas on [email protected]