Creativity Works multimedia trainees celebrated at their virtual graduation showcase

This year’s Creativity Works began back in March and was paused shortly after whilst the team processed the news of a lockdown and the consequences for the programme. After speaking with funders, Mayors Fund for London, Citi Foundation and Berkeley Foundation, it was decided that this year’s programme would continue – albeit virtually.

Powering through the pandemic

The first week of the programme kicked off as usual, with our trainees getting the opportunity to meet each other and the Media Trust team whilst getting professional headshots taken. As the programme moved into the second week of activities, the sessions moved online.

During the next nine weeks of the programme, our trainees logged in to Zoom for their masterclasses and each week they were set creative tasks which they published on their group Tumblr before receiving feedback to support their development.

In September, the group returned with six new trainees to start part two of their intensive multimedia training course. For the next ten weeks, the group were joined by media and creative industry experts for a range of once in a lifetime masterclasses.

These masterclasses included sessions with 4Talent, where they were given the opportunity to create a social media campaign for Celeb’s Go Dating, Hearst, where they learnt all about pitching, SEO and commercial journalism and Accenture, who taught the trainees about design thinking and coding enabling them to code music on Sonic Pi.

During the final four weeks of the programme our trainees were matched with industry mentors who they met with on a weekly basis and provided practical advice and tips about starting their careers within the industry. The mentors helped shape our trainees’ career aspirations and gave career guidance as well as support writing CVs and cover letters, searching and applying for jobs and preparing for interviews. Our mentors also introduced our trainees to relevant industry contacts for further guidance and advice. Many of our mentors have agreed to continue mentoring their young person following their graduation from Creativity Works.

A story of success

Following participation on the programme, many of our trainees have already been successful in securing work, placements or internships at top organisations including BBC Radio London, Livity, MediaCom/GroupM, Prom’s at St Jude’s and Westside FM.

Thank you to Accenture, adamandeveDDB, Amazon, BBC, Channel 4, David Higham Associates, Edelman, Facebook, fastn, Good Nugget, Google, Group M, Hearst, Insight Money Management, Instagram, ITV, Kubi Springer, LinkedIn, MTV, News UK, Searchlight Recruitment, Snap, Tipi Group, Twitter, UKTV, Verizon, Viacom, Warner Media and Yahoo, who all delivered inspiring masterclasses, workshops and careers talks during the programme.

Congratulations to all graduates this year. Media Trust is proud to be a part of your journey and cannot wait to watch your careers go sky high!

For more information on our Creativity Works Multimedia Training programme click here.