RiteTrax digital & creative skills programme and work experience

Written by Adam Seymour, RiteTrax

Courtesy of RiteTrax

RiteTrax delivered a digital and creative skills training programme for young people in Sheffield who were, at the time, not in employment.

Digital skills to support employability

The young people learnt various digital skills such as social media, content creation as well as creative skills such as music technology and DJing whilst practising transferable working skills such as punctuality, communication, teamwork and reliability.

The young people created their own showcase event which was recorded live and broadcasted on our RiteTrax YouTube. The showcase included original music, creative writing, and interviews all presented by the participants themselves.

The success of the showcase has enabled us to be more confident in delivering projects that lead up to live streamed showcases and we continued to work with all participants in some regard after the course had ended. We learnt that this way of working can be really positive for all involved.

Becoming more work ready

Courtesy of RiteTrax

We were hoping that the participants would feel more ready for work, and in some cases, gaining employment as a result of the skills and confidence earned through the programme. One thing we did expect was that the young people, due to being out of the habit of a working routine, may find it difficult to attend every session or be on time every week.

We added specific training within script writing, live streaming and presenting to the programme so the young people were confident to broadcast the showcase live. The biggest challenge we faced was that some participants arrived late or didn’t attend at all sometimes. One young person also began arriving at the workshops intoxicated which, naturally, caused disruption.

This was handled by removing them from the workshop initially and making sure that they were safely taken home in a taxi. We then put an agreement together where they would have to commit to being sober whilst engaging with the workshops, for the safety and comfort of everyone else in the workshops. They didn’t continue onto our work experience extension, however, we are now working with them on a much more focussed 1-to-1 basis and supporting them in building up their skills away from the group setting.

Outcomes of the course

Courtesy of RiteTrax

Key outcomes of the course included:

• 5 out of 6 young people completed the course, with one leaving due to gaining full-time employment
• We supported 3 external facilitators to plan and deliver a workshop
• 4 young people continued onto a three month work experience programme at RiteTrax
• 1 continued onto further 1-to-1 training and support from RiteTrax

Some feedback from the young people included:

“I loved having something to do during the week & learning how to DJ, I want to carry this on.”

“I loved audio production, something I’ve never done before and ended up being my favourite topic. I loved that each session was different skill/experience.”

We will most definitely be continuing to work with this group of young people and this style of teaching.

The advice I would give to creative practitioners who would like to work with a new group of young people is to allow plenty of creative freedom and opportunities for feedback from your group. Be honest with everyone and make sure that you enjoy the work that you’re doing because that energy will have a knock on effect for your participants.