Inspiring Futures: Building skills that last
How can we equip young people for the world of work? What are the skills they need? At Digital Voice, we think it’s a combination of practical skills and confidence building.
Inspiring Futures is our training and development programme for young people. Built into it from the beginning are essential employability and digital skills which we deliver through a film making project and a work placement. Participants can expect increased sense of self-esteem; new skills in film-making and media literacy; working as part of a team; professional experience; preparedness for interviews and applications.
Barnardo’s approached us to work with a group of young people who they then commissioned to make a short film about their Supported Lodging Scheme. The participants were trained in a variety of roles, for example, researcher, producer or camera operator and then assigned themselves one of those roles for the film project. Alongside these practical skills they develop transferable employability skills such as assertiveness, teamwork, working towards a common goal and sharing feedback.
The young people really grew during this project, it was lovely to watch and the final product had us all in tears – Carol Preston, Barnardo’s.
Our practitioners on this programme included Michael Pentney, who works in TV and film and resumés include Peaky Blinders and TV awards and ex- BBC’s Chris Jackson award-winning documentary-maker. They introduced the young people to the world of TV and film making, drawing on their real-life experiences to inspire and encourage. The young team then created a narrative by researching, interviewing and drawing on their own conclusions before taking on production roles to film and edit in order to create a short documentary.
The opportunity to meet and work with professionals such as Chris and Michael have inspired each of the young people to keep working towards their goals and they left the course feeling that they really can achieve their aspirations. They were also sharing practical advice throughout about education, training and employment routes and opportunities. One has gone on to study media production at college– Steve Moffitt Barnardo’s.
Watch the film they made here
![“[What was most useful was] skills in camera work and a sense of achievement.”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d65118351c0ef000184abba/1652791378196-VELFWAOZJAZ8QVI26HB5/1.png)
Digital Voice continues to develop this programme and will be adding vlogging and podcasting to the offer, ensuring that it stays relevant and engaging to the young people we work with.
The future is bright.
If you have a group of young people that you think would benefit, please get in touch.