Paid work placements for TV geeks

This interesting development for paid work placements at North West digital companies came to my attention this week.

Companies are being offered £1000 for two months to take on creative coding talent identified via a new scheme aimed at giving recent graduates a step up onto the career ladder

The press release issued this week offers a rather bleak assessment of the market the region’s students are facing, and explains the thinking behind the initiative:

“This is a fantastic opportunity for graduates who, like everyone else, are due to feel the negative effects of the recession. With unemployment rising, and more universities offering creative media courses, competition for jobs is getting more and more fierce.

“Placement schemes like this will find and develop talent to strengthen the supply chain. Without schemes like this, recent graduates will have very little chance of making their way onto the first rung of the career ladder.”

It goes on to explain how this scheme will operate:

“Northwest Vision and Media, Skillset and Just-b. Productions have teamed up with the BBC for ‘b.TWEEN TV Platforms’, which will match final year graduates with businesses in the digital industry to develop multi-platform products

“With the broadcast landscape shifting, b.TWEEN TV Platforms will source young talent to help develop the next generation of products that combine TV broadcast with broadband capabilities

“Final year graduates with strong software skills will pitch their ideas for using existing web and broadcast technologies that will work on a TV screen. The winning pitches will then be linked to participating companies, who will manage the build of prototypes and then submit these back to the BBC later in the year for review.”

Lynn Kelly, Head of Skills at Northwest Vision and Media adds: “We understand that one of the biggest challenges for growing digital companies is finding the right talent to help them grow and this project has been designed to solve that challenge.
“We will seek and filter out the very best newcomers to the industry – that rare breed who can programme for the web with creative flair

“Not only will this allow companies to develop stronger links with the BBC and get access to new talent, but they will get them for free – Northwest Vision and Media will pay for graduates first two months at a rate of £1000 per month.”

Interested companies should e-mail kirsty@just-b.com with ‘North West TV platforms’ in the subject line. Deadline 31/08/09