Production Apprentice Review

My role as a Production Apprentice was split into two halves over my 1 year as an apprentice. The first was as a runner and the second as a Production Management Assistant. My first role was not as busy as I would have liked it to be. I found myself with a lot of free time, sometimes weeks of having no tasks or work set for me to do no matter how many times I asked for some. I really wanted to fill this time and make the most of the opportunity I had been given. I approached members of the academy for help about this, I approached my line manager, a representative of the academy who was based in my area of the country but sadly, nothing changed. I found this extremely disheartening considering the tremendous competition to get onto the scheme in the first place and rather lost in an industry I had absolutely no experience in. Fortunately, there was certain opportunities offered to us outside of our own departments where we could gain extra experience in the industry. Even if they only lasted a day or two, I found these extremely useful and rewarding. My second placement was dramatically better than my first. I had a lot more responsibility assisting an executive team, arranging meetings, liaising with companies like BAFTA and RTS, really being stretched in my abilities and constantly busy.

I knew nothing about the television industry before coming into it so I think that has been a massively steep learning curve for me. I think I have massively improved my organisation and juggling skills. Also learning how to communicate with high level members of staff has been important. Being part of the BBCs 'Ariel' scheme has taught me a lot. I have now published two articles on the BBC staff website, and attended a training day which focused on journalism filming and writing skills. I think some of the people working in the industry that we have been able to get training from have been inspiring and I feel lucky to have met a lot of them. In terms of the actual qualification we were actually meant to receive on the apprenticeship, none of us have yet received it and are still waiting on fundamental information about the end point of this qualification to be passed onto us. I feel I learnt far more from speaking to experienced people from the industry than completing work to go towards the qualification.

I enjoy very much the work I do now and the team who I work for. I feel completely included, valued and respected which I have learnt is a huge part of enjoying what you do and feeling comfortable. I still find certain aspects of the culture hard to adjust to and I wouldn't say I agree with them all. For example the such short contracts that often younger staff members are more subject to, some even as short as a month long which is a terrible amount of uncertainty for people renting and paying bills. I think the culture is very hierarchical and I from my experience this often seems to stop creativeness and input from those at the bottom of the triangle, even if they could have been employed for those reasons... having said this, I think all of this is very changeable depending on the team you work for. Certain aspects of what I've been able to do here have met my expectations of the scheme, such as having two articles published and working on big high profile live programs. However, I am sad to say that the majority of things I have experience during this apprenticeship did not meet my expectations at all and I feel the experiences of some apprentices compared to others was astronomically different, putting some people at a much higher advantage than others. Also a lack of feeling able to speak out to the people running the programme about these problems or being shut down when problems were raised had a big impact for me on my enjoyment of this process. Again, I have enjoyed aspects of the scheme such as the people I have met, the job I am now in and some of the experiences I have had. But on a whole, particularly early on I was immensely unhappy and I could feel the confidence in myself and my ability completely diminishing. Fortunately this was brought back by my latter role. A roller coaster to sum up!

As an apprentice, I did not feel particularly valued by the BBC. A lot of staff members I interacted with didn't really understand what the apprenticeship scheme was, what the point of it was or have any idea just how competitive the scheme is to get onto. I think a wider knowledge and understanding of the scheme by all BBC staff would solve a lot of issues. I know the BBC is in the process of doing a lot of work to try and listen to it's younger members of staff which I think is hugely needed and I do hope this becomes successful. One of the main times I felt my opinion was really valued was on joining a Youth Initiative set up by younger members of BBC staff. I think I've learnt a big part of being valued depends on the team you work for and in the work I do now I feel very valued and appreciated for what I do by my manager which has helped grow my confidence in the industry a lot.

I think structure and organisation are the fundamental things that have caused major problems to this programme. Everything on the initial induction seemed fine, there was still a lot of worry within the group as some people still had no idea what placement they would actually be doing at the BBC. Our training was a very mixed experience. Problems with the qualification we were doing not actually being a singed off qualification until half way through our training caused lots of issued. Some training felt really useful and inspiring but others felt quite pointless. I felt a complete lack of support from the academy itself, almost nervous about approaching them with problems as it felt as if anything you had to complain about would jeopardise your chances in the industry. We were told we would receive mentors throughout the apprenticeship, that sadly never happened. In my first position I was delegated no tasks what so ever and found this extremely difficult to busy myself in an industry I was so unfamiliar with. The programme as a whole just completely lacked organisation and structure. The things I am most proud of are the things I have done without the help of the scheme.

I feel overall that I got a good amount of support from my trainer provider. Although things were much slower to get started than everybody including the trainers would have liked, I do feel they did their best in trying to help us achieve all the work. Guidance about other problems with the apprenticeship were very helpful and they gave us a lot of help and things to think about not just to do with the BBC, but the industry as a whole. I always felt the attitude of helping me was very positive and members from the training provider showed genuine care. I didn't enjoy all aspects of training but I think a lot of this was down to it always being based in London, and lack of organisation during some of the sessions led to a lot of wasted time.

I receive a lot of support from my current manager and feel I can go to her with any problems or questions and that she gives me the right balance between support and letting me be in charge of my own things. I rarely ever speak to our HR team but when I have it has been to do with pay issues, this can be a very frustrating situation but the HR team are always very competent and understanding. I have never had a mentor even thought it was something promised with this scheme. I think that would have been really useful as it's great not only to speak to someone with more experience, but to have someone to be completely honest with about how you are feeling and any concerns you have. I didn't feel I had anyone to get support from this with.

Luckily I was positioned in a base that meant I could carry on living at home. This kept my living costs to a minimum so my salary easily covered my expenses. However, if I was having to rent, which I know majority of people of this scheme did, I would have struggled to do so on this salary.

The voluntary activities I did outside of my day to day job are some of the best experiences I had. They were often on high profile live events, which were extremely busy and fast paced but an excellent learning and networking opportunity. I would highly recommend these if you get the change and also volunteering for as much as you can, there are lots of events that would welcome a helping hand.

Yes

Because its an esteemed place to work and is highly regarded and recognized by other people inside and outside of the industry. The BBC does some amazing things and makes some incredible shows and if you meet the right people it can lead to some really exciting opportunities.

100% be yourself. I had no experience in the media what so ever, but I knew I had good experience in lots of other areas and you have to believe in what you're capable of doing. Let them see who you are and not who you think they want you to be.