Northern Lights Training Course Returns
An innovative multi-platform media production course that helps young people to break into the industry is making a welcome return to the North West.
‘Northern Lights’, which is funded by Vision+Media, is a four-week programme that will see 16 people, new to the industry, gain specialist training in TV, Radio, Gaming or Digital Interactive working. The successful applicants will then apply these skills to one of four live industry multi-platform briefs.
Partner companies for 2010 include Key 103, Fudge, Chillingo and BBC.
The programme has been commissioned following its successful first year, which saw 15 participants gain employment at companies including Channel 4, Chillingo, McCann Manchester and the BBC as a result of the scheme.
The course is once again being run by Moira Kean and Andrew Thomas. Moira has recently left the BBC with over 25 years of production and training experience. Andrew was previously eBusiness Director at parenting club Bounty, and has over ten years interactive sector experience in the North West.
Andrew Thomas said: “Multi-platform is today’s media buzzword - computer games spawn feature films, TV programmes launch music careers and social networks form the new hubs for boutique video content.
“How does a media industry that traditionally recruited and trained along clearly segmented channels find the talent to develop the ideas of tomorrow? Northern Lights is aimed at helping develop talented individuals to thrive in such environments.”
Head of Skills at Vision+Media, Lynn Kelly comments: “When it comes to multi-platform, the industry needs work ready, bright, young people who can hit the ground running. That’s why we devised Northern Lights. It was a UK first when we launched the course in 2009, we are now recruiting our third cohort of trainees. The success of the programme is due to the quality of the content and the quality of talent that it uncovers, we believe that Northern Lights bridges the gap from completing higher education to making big waves in the media industry – producing the media stars of the future.”
Former Northern Lights trainee Phill Hetherington explains: “Before I took part in the pilot for the Northern Lights scheme, I was unhappy in my job, with seemingly no prospects of things getting any better. Participating in the programme, and meeting so many talented people who were so generous with their time and expertise, was inspirational and turned my life around. “Not only did it expose me to a wide variety of creative industries, but it also equipped me with some of the skills I needed to follow my chosen path. Its taken alot of hard work and dedication, but I’m now on a placement with a video games developer - made possible by Northern Lights.”
Trainees from last year’s programme produced a five minute Prezi for YouTube, which explains what Northern Lights is.
The closing date for applications is 20 September and the programme begins on 01 November.
More information and application details can be found on the Vision+Media website.
