BEHIND THE SCENES: MANCHESTER FUTURES

We know you are all dying to hear how out latest podcasting course Manchester Futures went down… sit tight and let us tell you the ins and outs of podcasting town. 

Our latest workshop, delivered in partnership with The Prince’s Trust, kicked off in the end of January with a two week Podcasting Bootcamp, during which participants were immersed into the mind-blowing world of digital broadcasting.

To our utter delights, Manchester Futures was able to run in person and participants came into our space at Bonded Warehouse.

After learning the foundations of how to script, record and edit a full podcast, participants were introduced to three different employers from Manchester.

The group of young people had the pleasure of working with some pretty incredible businesses this time running, with two site visits during the first week.

One group visited Rope Ladder Fiction in Swinton, the new film set for the Waterloo Road TV series, who were thrilled by the opportunity to see the behind the scenes action of how a TV series functions. One participant of this group says ‘It really brought on how real it actually is, once you experience it, it seems so much more achievable’. Two people from each department were interviewed, such as the art, story writing, production managers and story alchemists – a great success.

Another group visited one of the Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) locations, the Sugden Centre which is located next to the University of Manchester. The GLL manages a huge proportion of leisure centres across the UK, amounting in a whopping 270 facilities. As a charitable social enterprise and not-for-profit business, they also fund over 3,000 athletes via a sports foundation programme and work closely with their partner Cancer Research.

For the sporty crowd amongst the group, this one was very appealing and one participant says ‘It was quite fun because they booked a hall for us, so we got to play a bit of badminton’.

After the badminton rodeo, the group interviewed the manager of the Sugden Centre and then retreated back to Reform for lunch (chocolate penguins were on the cards, you see).

The final group interviewed the founder of Mozzington, a non-profit design agency – ‘all about creating opportunities for people of all backgrounds to thrive and contribute to society’ (we couldn’t have put it better ourselves).

Upon speaking to the Manchester Futures cohort, it became apparent that there was a common denominator encapsulating the room. As a group, most of the individuals involved were hoping to gain more experience and reward themselves with another gold star to pop on their CV (tick).

Let’s be honest, the past two years have been challenging and getting your foot in the door as a young creative has never felt more tough. So, to see a great turnout for Manchester Futures just proves the need for such projects.

One participant says that the workshop has shifted their path and perspective, as they have ‘always been creative’ but ‘always had a 9-5’ in order to support their creative venture, in this case – acting. But, in light of these comments, the participant adds that the workshop has given them the confidence to ‘shift into a new direction and work in a place where I can grow’. This is the energy we love to see in 2022!

Similarly, another young person on the course, who has career aspirations of being a film director, explains how the past few weeks have helped them. ‘As one of the youngest here, I am quite fresh and new to all of this. I felt that I didn’t have the creative knowledge to go into the creative field, because people want degrees and I didn’t have that’.

The pressure of going to University is monumental, overwhelming and more importantly, not for everyone. Degrees are not the be all and end all, there are plenty of other ways to kickstart your career. During the following four weeks of Manchester Futures, 1-1 support such as wellbeing, CV writing, applications, interview prep and work placements are offered to help and support our participants in their journeys.

As an ongoing six-week project, participants had all set themselves personal goals for the experience. One comments, that they hope by the end of this to start a path onto their ‘dream career’ and begin doing what they have wanted to do their ‘entire life’ (make money AND enjoy it… yes, please).

After conducting the interviews, the participants worked in groups to edit them together to be aired on a live show that took place on Friday the 11th on February at 1PM.

Naming themselves ‘Expression Collective‘, the group describes their podcasting bootcamp:

‘Over the space of two weeks we have learnt how to make podcasts and had the opportunity to talk to employers in a variety of fields and gain an in depth understanding about their field of work. As well as this, we really wanted to gauge how us and those around us express themselves.’

Listen back to the show down below to hear what they put together over the duration of the podcasting bootcamp.

If you would like to gain more experience, meet industry professionals and push yourself out of your comfort zone then listen out for our next project and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or queries via projects@reformradio.co.uk