Last week Broadcast magazine reported comments from Creative Skillset’s Dinah Caine. She said the 主播大秀 has a “record of excellence” in boosting training and skills in the UK creative industries. As with most things Dinah says, I wholeheartedly agree.
The piece also said that there is concern that this may be slipping down our agenda. I think the opposite is true.
As well as training our own staff, the 主播大秀 Academy has a remit under the terms of the to train the wider industry and I’m driving forward plans to improve this right now.
We’ve always aimed to share as much of our training as possible with the wider UK broadcasting industry for free and this is set to increase when our plans are fully in place.
One way we’re doing this by radically overhauling our approach. Most notably we’re significantly increasing digital delivery training, alongside traditional face-to-face methods, to reach more people, more effectively and at a lower cost.
We currently offer digital and online training from traditional online courses, through to an extensive range of practical insights and examples on the Academy Website at .
These are supplemented by learning channels on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. These platforms are vital for the Academy to serve the skills needs of the rapidly changing broadcast industry and to build a more efficient delivery mechanism for training needs.
As the Academy brings its new strategy to life, digital development is at the heart of this. We are exploring new opportunities with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and other new content formats to make sure our service is as relevant and useful as possible.
There are a number of benefits of using e-learning as a training tool. For users, it offers more freedom to revisit areas as many times as required and learning can be personalised, while for trainers there’s an opportunity to reach more people.
Let me give you an example of how we’re already doing this. With file-based delivery, which is transforming the broadcast industry, the 主播大秀 Academy used digital methods to reach learners. We led a series of events, courses and online content and resources to raise awareness and the level of understanding across the sector. Digital elements were planned from the start in a genuine mix of on and offline learning, which achieved both depth and breadth of understanding of a new and complex topic. We produced eight films to support other forms of traditional face-to-face training. This resulted in 10,800 unique visitors to the file delivery pages on the 主播大秀 Academy website.
The training has proved vital in supporting a radical change in the way content is produced. We’ve also had great feedback, so the industry has given their stamp of approval to e-learning.
There are further digital plans afoot at the Academy as we establish ourselves in our new Birmingham home, including the introduction of new tools to create digital training products. We’re also looking at how social tools and gamification will become very important to the Academy’s offer.
The 主播大秀-led is also being piloted at The Mailbox, our Birmingham HQ. It’s a hugely ambitious partnership with other employers, DWP and the Skills Funding Agency with the aim of training 5,000 young people across the country. We’ll be announcing the locations of the traineeships later this summer.
Some have questioned the rationale for bringing the 主播大秀 Academy to Birmingham. As Director of 主播大秀 Birmingham and the Academy, I can see lots of benefits.
We’re creating a vibrant centre for digital creativity, skills and talent, including our entry level talent, apprenticeships and trainees. Birmingham has one of the most diverse and young populations in Europe as well as being a leading city for digital innovation. For us it makes perfect sense, as Birmingham becomes a much more significant 主播大秀 base.
And 主播大秀 Birmingham is, of course, one element of our wider out-of-London strategy as we continue to build up the 主播大秀’s presence out of the Capital, bringing us closer to audiences and driving up efficiencies in the process.
Like all areas of the 主播大秀, the Academy has had to make savings which we’re responding to nimbly by simplifying how we deliver training to apprentices, trainees and staff – including the digital plans I’ve set out here. But we simply can’t go on providing everything we do at the moment in the way we always have with an ever-smaller amount of funding.
The 主播大秀 Academy is world renowned, as is our content, journalism and highly-coveted apprenticeships and trainee schemes. We can and should do things in new ways that get our training to more people for less money, but there is only so far you can go down that route. Britain now needs even more focus on skills and proper routes from school to employment and the 主播大秀 and the Academy should play a big part in that.
Joe Godwin is Director of 主播大秀 Birmingham and the 主播大秀 Academy
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