Cream Of Welsh Media @ ATRiuM
THE ATRiuM hosted a careers seminar for students across South Wales to attend and meet a panel of successful professionals from different media fields. Co-organised by Skillset Screen Academy Wales and Royal Television Society, the seminar panellists were chaired by international award winning theatre director Ceri Sherlock. Also on the panel were S4C and Al Jazeera television producer Nia Ceidiog, web designer Aled Parry, director Phil John, and assistant editor at BBC for multimedia news Ceri Jackson.
More than 50 students attended this event from different institutions across South Wales such as Coleg Glan Hafren, University of Wales, Newport, Cardiff University, and of course the ATRiuM itself. Such was the importance of this event that guests had to pre-book in advance to reserve a seat.
The panellists shared their career experiences with the students and spoke about the origins of their passions for their respective careers. The common line of thought shared by each panellist was to persevere and think outside the box if necessary to stand out among hundreds of others.
Quite notable was Ceri Jackson’s account of how her love for journalism began while accompanying her father; also a journalist, to the press box at Sophia Gardens many years ago. She went on to illustrate how students shouldn’t take one knock back to mean failure, when she accounted for her own master plans falling flat as she got turned down for an NCTJ traineeship all those years ago.
Jackson spoke of the places she then worked for following the turn down by NCTJ, which included unpaid work experiences in local London newspapers, a chance conversation with the editor getting her a place in the traineeship at Hendon and Finchley Times, all the way to ultimately making a name for herself while working for Bella magazine before moving on to the Daily Mail, and finally BBC Wales.
Following the panellists sharing their career experiences, all students were broken up into groups of 12 allowing the panellists to individually go around the room and chat with students on a more personal scale.
S4C’s Tim Hartley, also a Royal Television Society fellow, was one of the main organisers of this event and he feels the main purpose of it is to assist students get an idea of what it’s like to attempt to gain that elusive first foothold in an industry before establishing themselves.
He said: “The idea is to share experiences with those about to enter a similar line of work. Our panellists are from a wide sector of interest so we can break down traditional barriers between presentation and production, or public and private sector”.
”It is important this way to try and involve young people in to an industry that’s currently changing as new technologies converge. We can’t talk about the industry in terms of just the television or a single source”.
“There are different means, sources of funding and distribution platforms. It can be a scary world out there for someone just starting off but very, very exciting too.”
Hannah Raybould, Project Manager of the Screen Academy Wales added “Events such as these, which the Academy co-host with key industry organisations such as the RTS are a vital part of our role to offer students the relevant information for a career in the creative media industries. The feedback from attendees shows that students are keen to hear from professionals about the realities they will face upon graduation, and we are looking forward to collaborating with a range of organisations over the coming months.”
