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This is Me – Final Evaluation
Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................................4 The Commission .................................................................................................. 4 The structure of this report .................................................................................. 5 Chapter 1: Methodology ...............................................................................................................6 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 6 Secondary data analysis .................................................................................... 6 Provider interviews ........................................................................................... 6 Participant views ............................................................................................... 6 Chapter 2: The Project ...................................................................................................................8 Development ....................................................................................................... 8 Rationale ............................................................................................................. 8 The programmes ................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 3: Programme Activities ........................................................................................... 10 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 10 Bauer Academy .................................................................................................. 10 Collage Arts ....................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 4: Participants’ views ................................................................................................. 13 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 13 The surveys .................................................................................................... 13 The focus groups ............................................................................................ 14 The views of Collage Arts participants ................................................................ 14 Overall rating .................................................................................................. 14 Most useful ..................................................................................................... 14 Least useful .................................................................................................... 15 Achieving goals .............................................................................................. 16 This is Me Final Evaluation
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Overall ............................................................................................................ 17 Stakeholder views ........................................................................................... 17 The views of Bauer Academy participants ........................................................... 18 Overall rating .................................................................................................. 18 Most useful ..................................................................................................... 19 Least useful .................................................................................................... 20 Achieving goals .............................................................................................. 20 Overall ............................................................................................................ 21 Stakeholder views ........................................................................................... 22 Summary ........................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 5: Outcomes................................................................................................................... 24 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 24 Bauer Academy outcomes .................................................................................. 24 Case studies ................................................................................................... 25 Collage Arts outcomes ....................................................................................... 26 Case studies ................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 6: The impact of COVID-19 ...................................................................................... 29 Introduction .................................................................................................... 29 Survey findings ............................................................................................... 29 Summary ........................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 7: Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 32 Overview ............................................................................................................ 32 The participants ................................................................................................. 32 Views on the programme ................................................................................... 32 Outcomes .......................................................................................................... 33 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 33
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Introduction The Commission Bauer Academy and Collage Arts commissioned Russell Webster to undertake an evaluation of the This is Me: Creative London youth project funded by JPMorganChase Foundation. This is Me (TIS) is designed to up skill unemployed, economically inactive and underemployed Londoners aged 16-30, who wish to pursue a career in the creative industries, and to provide work-based learning and support to progress people into jobs and apprenticeships. The programme prioritises applications from people who experience disadvantage and/or discrimination and are less likely to succeed in developing careers in the creative industries which are less likely to employ individuals from diverse backgrounds. The project is jointly delivered by a partnership of Collage Arts and Bauer Academy who provide two separate programmes on their own premises but with the same goals. The two organisations have specified that the evaluation should review the project outcomes for appropriateness, sector relevance and potential for future development and impact. An interim evaluation report was produced in November 2019; it focused on the programmes delivered and presented the activities undertaken up to that point including a demographic profile of the participants and their views on the programmes gained via an online survey. This interim evaluation also provided preliminary information on outcomes. The final evaluation was scheduled for July 2020 but has been produced two months early owing to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately, all the planned research activities were undertaken before lockdown, including face-to-face interviews with participants. The pandemic has of course had a negative impact on the employment prospects and outcomes of all participants. For this reason, the evaluator constructed a second online survey asking for participants about the effect of coronavirus on their work aspirations and asking them to identify particular areas of need. This final evaluation provides a complete overview of the impact of the project and includes the views of key employers and industry representatives. This is Me Final Evaluation
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The structure of this report This report is organised in a straightforward fashion. Chapter 1 sets out the methodology employed. Chapter 2 describes the programmes provided. Chapter 3 presents the activities of the project, giving a demographic profile of participants. Chapter 4 presents the views of project participants and key stakeholders. Chapter 5 looks at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the work aspirations of the participants of the This is Me programme. Chapter 6 focuses on the outcomes achieved by the project and includes case studies while Chapter 7 summarises the conclusions of the evaluation and makes recommendations for future programmes assisting this client group.
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Chapter 1: Methodology Introduction This evaluation adopted a multi-method approach to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the TIS programme to date. Findings have been triangulated from three
key
assessment recorded
methods: of data
an
Stakeholder interviews
formally including
secondary
analysis
of
monitoring
information;
the
Data analysis
Evaluation
gathering and assessment of qualitative
Participant views
information
gathered from stakeholder interviews, and interviews and surveys of participants’ views. These methods are described in more detail below.
Secondary data analysis Bauer Academy and Collage Arts provided the evaluator with anonymised versions of their monitoring systems enabling him to present a detailed demographic profile of TIS participants as well as recording the number of courses delivered and the number of participants completing those courses.
Both organisations also supplied
information about the outcomes achieved by the project’s participants in terms of the employment, training and further education opportunities they secured.
Provider interviews The evaluator undertook face-to-face and telephone interviews with key staff at both Collage Arts and Bauer Academy to understand the organisation and rationale of each part of the project. Interviews were also undertaken with four other stakeholders working with the programme.
Participant views The evaluator designed separate but complementary online surveys to gain participants’ views on the training provided. The respective surveys were distributed by Collage Arts and Bauer Academy staff who encouraged all to complete them. The online survey was completed by 28 participants of the Collage Works training and 25 participants of the Bauer Academy courses. The evaluator also undertook separate This is Me Final Evaluation
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focus group interviews with eight participants of the Bauer Academy provision and six participants of the College Arts programme. A second online survey, asking about the impact of COVID-19, was distributed to all This is Me participants in April 2020; it was completed by 40 Bauer Academy and 30 Collage Arts participants.
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Chapter 2: The Project Development This is Me was conceived as a new approach to storytelling encompassing multiple themes of people and places, community and industry, diversity and inclusion, issues around employability, wellbeing, environment, and inter-generational concerns. The aim was to develop community-led and industry-informed courses and nonformal learning opportunities for Londoners experiencing a range of disadvantages associated with their ethnicity, gender sexuality and economic inactivity. It was decided to focus on storytelling because many of the voices of these people have been ignored, with their stories often invisible to the mainstream media. Bauer Academy and Collage Arts set out to develop bespoke training across a range of creative industries in order to improve participants’ chances of developing work opportunities within those industries. The separate programmes developed by both organisations sought to provide participants with key skills, the experience of working on real-life commissions and the opportunity to develop their own networks. The rationale for this approach is set out below.
Rationale The process of finding work in the creative industries for people from diverse communities is typically more challenging than in most other sectors for three key reasons. •
Firstly, jobs in the sector are typically highly desirable with demand frequently outstripping supply. The main consequence of this is that employers and those providing pre-employment training in the sector rarely struggle to find willing recruits and have therefore historically invested little time and resources in making their industries more accessible to people from disadvantaged, typically diverse, backgrounds. Additionally, individuals from more affluent backgrounds are more likely to be able to find initial placements as unpaid interns.
•
Secondly, many of the industries in the sector have historically relied on highly developed personal and professional networks to identify new talent with the
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consequence that those with family or social connections to the industry find it much easier to access starter jobs than those who have been historically excluded. •
Thirdly, much employment in the sector can be precarious with work often short-term contract based with periods of unemployment; particularly in the early years of a developing career. Individuals with family financial support are more able to withstand this parlous financial situation at the early stage of their careers.
The combination of these factors has resulted in a situation in which industries in the creative sector are typically less diverse than many other parts of the economy; even though a disproportionate number of jobs are based in London, the most diverse city in the UK. TIS was designed to address these factors in order to enable people from disadvantaged communities London to have better opportunities to develop careers in the creative industries.
The programmes Both organisations, who have a history of collaboration, developed separate but complementary programmes. Bauer Academy developed a 10 day intensive programme including a number of key skills including storytelling, digital marketing, podcasting, blogging and creative writing, video production/vlogging and how to pitch and present creative ideas. The programme provides follow-up support to help participants with job applications and associated skills such as developing their CVs. The programme also regularly updates participants with a range of information about events in the creative industry as well as the latest job opportunities. Collage Arts ran a series of six-week part-time1 courses which provided training around a particular skill linked to a real-life event. Examples include promotional videos; theatre and exhibition digital set design; film for the Emerge festival as well as courses on visual arts and photography. Each course includes the full process of developing a pitch; pre-production; delivering the contract and post-production. Collage Arts provides follow-up support via a weekly job club with a 13-point process designed to help participants find work in the creative sector.
Typically two days per week although often the final weeks of the training involve more days for those who are available. 1
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Chapter 3: Programme Activities Introduction Both organisations provides their services to the full target number of 100 individuals. This chapter presents details of the activities and provides a demographic profile of participants, including information about the disadvantages that they face.
Bauer Academy Bauer Academy provided data on all 100 individuals who participated in the ten10day courses delivered between April 2019 and February 2020. Just over half (58%) participants were women and all participants were aged between 16 and 31 years with the median age being 23 years. Participants came from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, most from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) heritage. Just over one third of participants (34) described themselves as Black or Black British, a similar proportion (31) as White British, 16 as of a mixed ethnic background, nine as Asian or Asian British, five as from other white backgrounds and two as “other�. Figure 1 Ethnicity of Bauer Academy This is Me participants (n = 992)
5
2
9 34
16
31
Black
2
White British
Mixed
Asian
White other
Other
One participant preferred not to provide their ethnicity.
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The educational experience of participants was recorded with almost two thirds (62%) having completed a degree or higher level of education, almost one in three (29%) having a qualification defined as “post-secondary but not tertiary) and just one in eleven (9%) having no qualifications after leaving school. Three quarters of participants (74%) were unemployed; just under one fifth (19%) were in part-time employment and education and one in fourteen (7%) participants were self-employed. More than two out of five participants (41%) described their income as “low”, nearly one third (33%) described their income as “moderate” and almost one quarter (24%) describe their income as “middle”. Just three individuals were single parents and three others had caring responsibilities. Almost one tenth of participants (9%) disclosed a disability. In summary, the participants on the Bauer Academy course were more likely to be from a minority ethnic background, have good levels of education and were mainly unemployed. More than one in eight participants (83%) completed the course and every one of these individuals had received their formal accreditation: “Pitching a media product idea to an audience” which provides five Level Two credit units in the Media and Communication sector accredited by AIM Awards.
Collage Arts Collage Arts provided data on all 100 individuals who participated on nine different courses delivered between January and November 2019. Four out of five (76/953 = 80%) participants were women and all participants were aged between 17 and 32 years with the median age being 24 years. Participants came from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, almost two thirds (65%) from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) heritage as shown in Figure 2.
3
Gender was recorded for 95 participants.
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Figure 2 Ethnicity of Collage Arts This is Me participants (n = 100)
20
24
6
20 30
Black
White British
Mixed
Asian
Other
The educational experience of participants was recorded with more than seven out of ten (69/974 = 71%) having completed a degree or higher level of education, and almost three out of ten (28/97 = 29%) having a qualification defined as “postsecondary but not tertiary). Half of participant (46/925 = 50%) were unemployed (40) or economically inactive (6) with just under half (44/92 = 48%) defined as under-employed; and two individuals defined as young people “not in education, employment or training” (NEET). Almost one in seven participants (14 individuals) disclosed a disability. In summary, the participants on the Collage Arts training courses were more likely to be women, come from a minority ethnic background, have good levels of education and were mainly unemployed. Almost nine out of ten participants (88%) completed the programme. Half the participants (50%) undertook a regulated qualification with more than eight out of ten of these individuals (41 = 82%) achieving that qualification.
4 5
Educational experience was recorded for 97 participants. Employment status was recorded for 92 participants.
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Chapter 4: Participants’ views Introduction The views of This is Me participants were gathered by two principal methods: 1. An online survey sent to all participants 2. Focus group interviews with, respectively, eight Bauer Academy
and six
Collage Arts participants. A further survey enquiring into the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on participants’ employment prospects was sent in April 2020 and the findings are discussed in Chapter 6 of this report.
The surveys Two separate but complementary online surveys were designed to secure direct feedback from This is Me participants. Collage Arts participants were asked to specify which training course they had attended and to rate the activity on a scale between one and five. Bauer Academy participants were asked to rate each of the 10 days which comprised the This is Me training course on a three-point scale: “very useful”; “quite useful” or “not useful”. Both sets of participants were asked to identify the most and least useful thing about the course and were asked to rate the impact of the course and a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of two key questions: 1. How much do you think This is Me has helped you find work in the creative sector? 2. How much more confident are you about ending up with your chosen career? Survey respondents were also asked to share anything else about the This is Me course which they thought would be helpful and were asked about their current employment, training and/or educational activity. Finally respondents were asked whether they were happy with this work, training or education. Additionally respondents were asked to provide brief demographic information about their gender, age and ethnicity.
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The focus groups The focus groups were held on the respective premises of Bauer Media and Collage Arts, the first at the end of a day’s teaching on the This is Me programme, the latter over a specially organised lunch to which programme graduates were invited. The findings from both the surveys and the focus groups are combined in the section below which looks at participant views of each part of the programme separately.
The views of Collage Arts participants Twenty eight individuals who attended 10 separate courses completed the online survey. Twenty of the survey respondents were women, seven were men and one described their gender as non-binary. They were from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds: seven were white British; seven Asian/Asian British; five from mixed backgrounds; three were Black British; four described themselves as “other white” and two as “other6”. Survey respondents were aged between 20 and 30 years old with an average (median) age of 25 years.
Overall rating Survey respondents were asked to rate the training on a five-point scale where 1 = waste of time and 5 = excellent. The overall average rating was 4.4/5 with 17 individuals rating their experience as 5/5, eight as 4/5, and one each rating their experience as 3/5, 2/5 and 1/5. Several focus group interviewees commented on how much they enjoyed the process of the course: “The project being over some weeks gave some satisfaction to take something home and work on it and then come back to work with others and see it develop and grow. It was definitely more than the sum of its parts.”
Most useful Respondents were then invited to identify the most and least useful thing about the course. Twenty six participants identified a total of 40 different “most useful things” which could be categorised into six main areas: •
14 individuals commented on how they enjoyed working as a team and the associated networking opportunities;
6
One person described themselves as Latina and one as Arab.
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•
8 people highlighted the value of creating a real-life commissioning from beginning to end;
•
6 respondents valued the chance to learn specific technical skills;
•
5 people noted that their confidence had grown as a result;
•
4 people specifically noted that they had acquired key job skills; and
•
3 individuals stated that there had enjoyed the opportunity for creative collaboration.
The involvement in developing work for real world commissions was, for many people, the key to unlocking a different way of thinking about building a career in the creative arts sector as two different focus group interviewees described: “When I came, I had a specific career goal but I was stuck in not knowing how to get there. But the doing on the course, getting involved in different skills and activities was energising and really helpful. Making output on a regular basis gave me lots of opportunities and made me realise that there isn’t a perfect route map.” “Lots of people go uni but they still don’t know how to get started in getting a job they want in this sector”. Working in a team was both energising and confidence building as these quotes from focus group interviewees illustrate: “It was great to get a flavour of other people’s creative processes. It was so different to working in a vacuum or just seeing other people’s work but not knowing how they got there.” “I realised that I have a lot of relevant skills and don’t have to just market myself as one thing. I think lots of us got affirmation of the quality of our work.”
Least useful Only fourteen survey respondents were able to identify something they classified as “least useful” which could be categorised into two main areas: •
Five respondents would have liked the course to have been longer in order to include more content.
•
Four individuals highlighted one particular component of the course which they thought could have been improved (three people cited the research component and one person the editing content).
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In addition, three other participants highlighted individual issues: one would have liked the course to be more tailored to individual needs; one felt that some of the days in the course were not sufficiently focused and one person would have liked to have known more about the certification. Two individuals felt that overall they had not learnt as much as they had hoped from the programme.
Achieving goals Survey respondents were asked to say how much the course had helped them find work in the creative sector on a scale from 1-10 where 1 = “not at all” and 10 = “a huge help”). Respondents’ average score was 6.6/10 with answers ranging across the scale from 1 (1 individual) to 10 (3). Respondents were also asked how much more confident they were about ending up with their chosen career on a similar 10 point scale where 1 = “not at all” and 10 = “very confident”). Respondents’ average score was 6.8/10 with answers ranging across the scale from 1 (2 individuals) to 10 (3). Survey respondents were also asked to provide information about their current activity in terms of employment, training and education and whether they were happy with this. They were also asked whether this activity was in the creative industries or another sector. Twenty five individuals were active in the creative industries with 14 individuals freelancing; three with full-time jobs; four with part-time jobs and four in education. Seventeen7 respondents were active in other sectors with nine individuals having a part-time job; three a full-time job; three in education and two people freelancing. Respondents were also asked how happy they were with what they were currently doing work wise on a five point scale where 1 = “not happy at all” and 5 = “very happy indeed”. All 28 survey respondents answered this question with an average rating of 3.2/5,
A total of 27 respondents answered this question, 15 individuals were active in both the creative and other sectors. 7
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Overall Survey respondents were also given the chance to comment on the TIS course in any way they wished in response to an open question “Please tell us anything else about the course you would like to share”. Twenty six individuals took up this opportunity with 20 respondents providing extremely positive comments and four people highlighting individual issues which they felt could be improved. These areas for improvement were: starting documentation for the portfolio earlier (2 individuals); more focus on online platforms (1); and having more workshops with people from the industry (1). Positive comments mainly focused on three main issues: the high quality of course tutors; the opportunity to meet people from the creative industries and the motivating and empowering nature of the course as a whole. The quotes below highlight these themes and are reproduced in full from individuals’ survey answers: “The staff were great at communicating and creating a motivational and inspiring friendly atmosphere.” “It was such an amazing experience!! I felt so empowered and confident in my abilities and many lovely and talented people!! Thank you!!!” “The staff were so friendly and welcoming and I got to meet new people to bounce ideas and skills off of. Learning more than expected and coming out of the experience with a new perspective on the arts industry, I have more hope for finding work in the future too.” “It felt very good to be a part of it, the staff were very good mentors and I think that's the most important thing. Really felt like there was excitement and direction in the tasks and the project, and that there was plenty of support and guidance whenever things got tricky.” “I really realised it was possible to do this kind of work. When you are not surrounded with likeminded people, it’s hard to imagine yourself doing it, just sat at home, wondering what the next steps are.”
Stakeholder views The stakeholders interviewed had commissioned work from Collage Arts to be produced by This is Me participants. One interviewee (responsible for organising a sci-fi festival), who had commissioned set design and graphic design, was This is Me Final Evaluation
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exceptionally pleased with the work produced and said that it had made a significant contribution not only to the success of the festival but also to the decision by funders to commission another edition of the festival the following year. Another interviewee (from the Emerge festival) was pleased by the working relationship with Collage Arts and committed to the social impact that the festival would achieve as a result. However, the resultant work was judged to have only been of limited value to the festival and the interviewee felt that they had not fully understood the extent to which they were required to support Collage Arts and the This is Me participants. This had not diluted their appetite to repeat the partnership, but felt that better preparation would be needed next time.
The views of Bauer Academy participants Twenty five Bauer Academy TIS participants completed the online survey. Fifteen of the survey respondents were women and nine were men8. They were from a range of ethnic backgrounds: ten were Black British; seven White British; six from a mixed background and one was Asian British. Survey respondents were aged between 19 and 30 years old with an average (median) age of 23 years.
Overall rating Survey respondents were asked to rate the ten different components of the programme on a simple three point scale: “very useful”, “quite useful” and “not useful”. Overall, 196 (77%) of the 2569 different rankings provided were at the “very useful” level, 52 (20%) at the “quite useful” level and just 8 (3%) of “not useful”. The relative rankings of each of the components of the course are show in Figure 3 below.
8 9
One person did not answer this question. Not every respondent ranked every day of the course.
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Figure 3: Relative rankings of Bauer Academy TIS Course
Introduction Day
13
Next steps
8
14
3 9
0
Digial marketing
18
6
1
Production Day
18
6
1
Storytelling
20
Video production/vlogging
21
Podcasts
21
Pitching & presenting
21
How to pitch and present
4 3
5 Very useful
1 4
3 23
0
1
10 Quite useful
0 1 2 0
15
20
25
30
Not useful
Most useful Respondents were then invited to identify the most and least useful thing about the course. The 25 individuals identified a total of 31 different “most useful things” which could be categorised into four main areas: •
14 individuals highlighted specific components of the course that they found particularly valuable.
•
5 people appreciated the employment-related advice and opportunities.
•
5 highlighted the range of skills on offer which they felt opened up new opportunities.
•
4 commented on how they enjoyed working as a team and the associated networking opportunities.
In addition two participants cited the importance of meeting people from the creative industries and one participated noted an increase in confidence as a result of the course. Focus group interviewees agreed that many of them had developed a much fuller understanding of how “the industry” works. Several had changed their way of career planning and were now more focused on finding any sort of work within the creative sector before taking up different opportunities once they were “on the inside”.
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“I found the conversations and stories really valuable as a way of learning different ways to find work. I now understand that there are a range of options and I don’t have to decide on a specific skill set/career first.”
Least useful Fifteen respondents identified 15 “least useful things” which could be categorised into two main areas: •
Nine respondents were not interested in one particular component of the course.
•
Three individuals would have liked there to be more immediate job opportunities at the end of the course.
Finally, one person would have liked the chance to develop a showreel, one would have liked more one-to-one time to develop their CV and one would have liked input on creative writing.
Achieving goals Survey respondents were asked to say how much the course had helped them find work in the creative sector and a scale from 1-10 where 1 = “not at all” and 10 = “a huge help”). Respondents’ average score was 7/10 with answers ranging across the scale from 2 (1 individual) to 10 (4). Respondents were also asked how much more confident they were about ending up with their chosen career on a similar 10 point scale where 1 = “not at all” and 10 = “very confident”). Respondents’ average score was 8/10 with answers ranging from 4 (1 individual) to 10 (4). Survey respondents were also asked to provide information about their current activity in terms of employment, training and education and whether they were happy with this. They were also asked whether this activity was in the creative industries or another sector. Nineteen respondents completed this section of the online survey. Sixteen of these nineteen individuals were already active in the creative industries sector with one in a full-time job and three in part-time jobs, eight freelancing, two working as interns, one pursuing training and one in education. Fourteen respondents were active in
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other sectors10: three respondents had full time jobs and six part-time jobs; two were freelancing in other sectors; and one person was in each category of working as an intern, doing a training course and being in education. Respondents were also asked how happy they were with what they were currently doing work wise on a five point scale where 1 = “not happy at all” and 5 = “very happy indeed”. All 25 survey respondents answered this question with an average rating of 2.7/5. Focus group interviewees acknowledged that many of them were still some way from finding the sort of full-time work which they really wanted within the creative sector but all had developed a clear plan of action as a result of the learning they had gained on the course. Several individuals also stated that the fact that they felt they had a much better understanding of how the industry worked had been very galvanising and motivating for them.
Overall Survey respondents were also given the chance to comment on the TIS course in any way they wished in response to an open question “Please tell us anything else about the course you would like to share”. Eighteen individuals took up this opportunity, all but two of whom expressed very positive comments, with these two individuals stating that they wished there had been time to do more in-depth work on each of the different components. There were eighteen positive comments overall which can be grouped into five categories: •
Respondents feeling more confident that they could achieve a career in a creative industry (5)
•
Respondents saying how motivated they felt by the course (4)
•
Praise for the knowledge and commitment of the course staff (4)
•
The networking opportunities (3)
•
The support with identifying job opportunities after the course ended (2)
The quotes below highlight these themes and are reproduced in full from individuals’ survey answers and focus group conversations: “This course really motivated me. I was around like minded people who really refocused me on what I wanted to do. The staff were so incredibly invested in us and A total of 19 respondents answered this question with 12 individuals active in both the creative and other sectors. 10
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that was visible. This course is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to explore the creative sector and need more insight.” “The course gave me the boost I needed - I have subsequently felt more confident, more knowledgeable and more passionate about pursuing a career in the creative industries. I can’t recommend this course enough! Thank you for everything!” “It was really helpful in opening my eyes to the creative industry.” “I found the tutor very motivating; it wasn’t just the group sessions but the chance to have lots of one-to-one conversations about what I might do next.” “It’s given me the confidence to market myself differently. I’m much less stressed about making the perfect decision and have resolved to just get involved whether that’s paid or unpaid, freelancing or a job. Every opportunity brings new networks and it’s clear that networks are the key to success in this industry.”
Stakeholder views The stakeholders interviewed were very positive about the This is Me programme which, they said, reflected a growing awareness of the challenges of diversity and an increasingly acknowledgement of diversity as a business imperative in a sector where there are often shortages in certain key skills. It was recognised that the Academy’s association with Bauer makes it both a desirable option for young people looking to work in the creative arts sector and for companies in the sector looking to recruit. There was a consensus that the nature of jobs within the creative sector is evolving and changing at such a rapid speed that it is very difficult for those outside the industry to have an understanding of the opportunities available and the skills required. One interviewee, who had employed a This is Me graduate, commented that traditional patterns of recruitment which rely on targeting graduates from specific universities for instance, not only compound the long-standing under-representation of people from diverse backgrounds within the industry but are also ineffective. She also felt that careers advisers, being non-specialist, had been unable to keep up with the pace of change within the industry. This interviewee was particularly happy with the person she had recruited and said that she and the new recruit were jointly developing and expanding the role to which he had been appointed. The Bauer Academy This is Me programme was regarded as a very effective springboard to encourage new recruits from diverse backgrounds into the industry This is Me Final Evaluation
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although it was agreed that the development of a wider range of move on options would improve the programme further.
Summary There was a general consensus among both the participants and stakeholders interviewed for this evaluation that the quality of provision in the two training courses which comprise the This is Me programme was extremely high and that both courses were fit for their primary purpose of improving the chances of participants from disadvantaged backgrounds of securing a career in the creative industries.
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Chapter 5: Outcomes Introduction This chapter sets out the outcomes achieved by This is Me participants to date. Since the evaluation has been undertaken relatively shortly after some of the courses provided within the programme ended, the evaluator’s initial assumption was that it is highly probable that the outcomes presented are not comprehensive and many other course participants may be able to convert their participation in the programme into achieving their career goals. Unfortunately, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic means that many individuals will also have lost employment either temporarily or permanently and that the career prospects for programme graduates generally are much more uncertain now than when they participated in the This is Me programme. The impact of coronavirus is explored in more detail in the following chapter.
Bauer Academy outcomes As we have seen, sixteen out of the twenty five participants who completed the online survey reported that they were working in the creative industries. More comprehensive information was available from staff at Bauer Academy who were able to confirm that 26 participants on the This is Me course had achieved work, training or education outcomes by 4 May 2020 with twenty one of these having held those positions for 90 days (the remaining five individuals were still in employment but had not yet reached the 90 day threshold). Twenty three individuals have found paid employment, sixteen of whom were working with in creative industries. Jobs included: SEO Executive, social media executive, YouTube editor, radio presenter, editor, front of house, sales and administration. Two individuals were also in education at the same time. Six individuals had undertaken work experience for Bauer Media, all of whom had subsequently found work five of them working for Bauer itself. Two individuals were working as interns and one was on a Digital Marketing apprenticeship at the London school of Public Relations.
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Case studies One high profile success story was Omah Howard who was just 18 when he attended the This is Me training course. Unemployed at the time, the course provided the perfect springboard for Omah who was encouraged and supported to enter the annual KISS FM Chosen One competition which offers the winner the opportunity to work as a presenter at the radio station. Readers can see the moment he was told he had won the competition by clicking on the tweet reproduced below.
Another successful participant from the Bauer Academy was 23-year-old Charlotte Partis-Nelson who attended the This is Me training course in June 2019. Charlotte enjoyed the course and founded a very motivating environment which also taught her a range of digital marketing skills with which he hadn’t previously been familiar. She was encouraged to apply for opportunities within our Media and subsequently secured work experience as a receptionist. During this work she met a manager in This is Me Final Evaluation
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the company’s magazine department who spotted her potential and hired her as an administrator in that department as maternity cover. Charlotte quickly impressed and in March 2020 was promoted to be an editorial assistant. Although Charlotte’s original ambition was to work in the beauty sector, she has now developed an extensive portfolio and is working on her own stories, mainly for “real-life” publications. Charlotte says that she is now much more open to a wide range of opportunities and is confident that she will be able to continue developing her career. She has a number of future pathways that she is considering but also says that she has learnt to be flexible and keep alert for unexpected opportunities.
Collage Arts outcomes As we have seen from the online survey responses, twenty seven programme graduates had found some form of employment, training or education with twenty five individuals active in the creative industries. More comprehensive information was available from staff at Collage Arts who were able to confirm that 61 participants of the This is Me course had achieved positive employment, training and education outcomes with 35 people in full-time work, 15 in part-time work, seven people doing apprenticeships and four people freelancing. Forty of these 61 individuals had sustained these outcomes for at least six months.
Case studies Robert enrolled on the TIS Music video project; he had already formed an electronic music duo “Among Bright Lights”. Robert told staff that he did not like school and he was greatly misunderstood there which Collage staff attributed to his lack of networking
and
communication
skills.
Robert committed all his energy and talents into the six weeks of the music video course. He supplied the rest of the group with his skills and expertise in music production. He was also appointed as the project’s director, directing the rest of the participants during video-shoots. This was a new role for him, which in his own words “Has supplied me with new skills and This is Me Final Evaluation
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knowledge in the area, particularly with regards to directing and/or communicating with people”. Robert is now working on a level 4 clock qualification and is fully employed at Homeslice as a head waiter/prep chef. He has also been offered employment on two other video projects, ‘TCBU Film’ course with Collage Works and summer school workshop ‘Record it’ with Alexandra Palace, both for which he is making sound scores. He has expressed his appreciation for Collage Works many times, and that this course has brought forth more opportunities for him. The Collage Works team have built a close relationship with him and his music partner, Jaden. This has led to them being referred to the Emerge festival programming team and they performed at the Bomb Factory for the Emerge Festival, a festival supporting young London-based artists to perform in iconic places.
The image accompanying this case study shows the
professional level of work achieved by participants in the TIS music video course. Carla is a visual artist specializing in video production. Carla’s distinctive style is characterized by 2D GIFF-like animations that are digitally produced and combined with video-production software. She uses her own voice to tell a story and her personal experiences often inform her video narratives. Carla participated in the Visual Arts project and staff were impressed by the quality of her work, her very distinctive aesthetic style and her exceptionally shy mannerisms. Carla was proactive and fully-focused during all six weeks of the Visual-Arts course. Her confidence grew and begin to lead the group. Carla also developed a close relationship with Ashanti, one of the other course participants, with whom she collaborated in producing a video in homage to Lilian Bader that was also exhibited in the They Came Before Us (TCBU) exhibition. You can see a video of the project below:
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Collage Arts were impressed by the quality of the work that she produced over the course and invited her to get involved in editing another video as part of the Film for Queen Philippa course. Witnessing her gain more confidence over time, she was also invited to take part in a shoot which took place during the ‘Photography/Videography’ course, where she modelled confidently and charismatically on camera. Evidently, Carla has developed her interpersonal skills and confidence. Carla has since the end of the course been offered freelance employment at Collage Arts and has invigilated the TCBU exhibition where she has hosted a visit from Tracy Emin. She is also currently collaborating with Ashanti on other external video projects and has completed her Level 2 qualification in Creative and Digital Media.
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Chapter 6: The impact of COVID-19 Introduction The coronavirus pandemic has, of course, affected the working patterns and prospects of almost everyone in the country; but has had a disproportionate impact on those in the early stages of their career. Since all the participants in the This is Me programme were looking to develop new careers in the creative sector, the evaluator designed two short complementary surveys which were distributed to all 200 participants. Forty participants from Bauer Academy and thirty from Collage Arts responded to the survey which asked about the impact of COVID-19 on their employment prospects.
Survey findings The survey asked respondents to rate how much they thought the course had helped them to find work in the creative sector BEFORE CORONAVIRUS on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 = Not at all and 10 = A huge help). All 70 respondents answered their question with their responses going across the whole range from 1 (5 respondents) to 10 (also 5 respondents) with an average rating of 5.7/10. Respondents were then asked two separate questions about how confident they were about ending up with their chosen career, again on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 = Not at all and 10 = Very confident) both BEFORE and AFTER coronavirus. All 70 respondents answered the BEFORE question and 69 respondents answered the AFTER question. The average confidence rating fell from 6.5 BEFORE coronavirus to 5.2 AFTER coronavirus. The full results can be seen in Figure 4 below.
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Figure 4: Confidence on 1-10 scale of ending up with chosen career
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RATING OUT OF TEN
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This reduction in confidence is unsurprising when we look at the impact of COVID-19 on This is Me participants. Survey respondents were asked about the consequences of coronavirus in terms of their employment, training and education. Sixty seven respondents answered this question, revealing the devastating effects of the pandemic on fledgling careers: •
19 individuals had lost freelancing work,
•
10 had lost full-time jobs with an additional five people being furloughed from full-time employment; another individual had a job offer withdrawn,
•
4 had lost part-time jobs with an additional 10 people being furloughed from part-time employment,
•
8 had had their training course or apprenticeship cancelled or suspended with another 5 having their training moved online, and
•
6 had had their education suspended.
Several (7) respondents noted that it was very difficult to get an interview for any form of work and many recruitment exercises in which they were involved had been cancelled or frozen. Three individuals had lost all forms of employment and said that they had had to apply for benefits. Respondents were asked what Collage Arts or Bauer Academy could do to help meet their work goals after coronavirus. Respondents were given three options: This is Me Final Evaluation
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•
Help me learn new skills
•
Help me network with potential employers and
•
Help me raise my profile/develop my brand.
Respondents were also given the opportunity to specify any other form of help they felt they would need. The demand for help was very strong with a large majority (59/69 = 86%) requesting help with networking with potential employers and more than half wanting help to raise their profile (38/69 = 55%) and to learn new skills (37/69 = 54%). Two individuals asked to keep receiving information about job opportunities and one person asked for help in locating work experience in a creative environment.
Summary It is clear that many of the positive outcomes facilitated by the This is Me programme have been, to a considerable extent, undermined by the coronavirus pandemic. It is likely that programme graduates will need urgent ongoing support in order to adapt to the profound changes in the economic situation of the country and get back on track to achieve their goal of building a career in the creative industries.
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Chapter 7: Conclusions Overview This evaluation demonstrates that the This is Me project has been a successful initiative which fully met its target of providing work-based training to 200 individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to enable them to access careers in the creative industries. Importantly, both participants and stakeholders were very happy with the quality of training they received and many programme graduates succeeded in converting their training opportunity into work in the creative industries. Regrettably, much of this excellent progress has been undone by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which has had a more disruptive effect on many of the creative industries and a disproportionate impact on those in the early stages of their careers, who are often combining freelancing and part-time jobs in the sector with other work in, typically, service industries.
The participants This is Me succeeded in recruiting participants from its target group of people experiencing disadvantage and discrimination. A majority of participants are from BAME communities with women in the majority. Most were unemployed or economically inactive when they started the programme, although a high proportion had already attained educational qualifications at degree level.
Views on the programme Participants on the training run by both Bauer Academy and Collage Arts gave very positive feedback on their experiences via an online survey. Participants highlighted a number of aspects of the training which they particularly valued including: •
The quality of the trainers.
•
The relevance of the material.
•
The importance of having input from people currently working in the creative industries.
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•
The opportunity to develop networks with peers and others.
Almost all the participants described a very positive impact from the training, with many reporting that they felt more confident and empowered to pursue a career in the creative industries. Importantly, many young people completely revised the way in which they were seeking to achieve their career goals, prioritising any kind of experience in the creative sector, realising that they had more options than they had originally realised and that their careers were likely to evolve in ways they had not previously foreseen once they were operating within their chosen work environment. Stakeholder interviewees were clear that the sort of proactive targeting and help which the This is Me programme offered to people from diverse communities who were grappling with a range of disadvantages was critical if the creative sector is to succeed in becoming more inclusive. Stakeholder interviewees were generally extremely impressed both by the quality of the training experiences and the calibre of the candidates who graduated the programme.
Outcomes Not only did participants report much increased confidence in reaching their goals but many had already secured either freelancing or employment opportunities within the creative sectors. Clearly, most participants are in the early stages of their careers and most were not fully satisfied with their achievements to date. However, TIS had clearly equipped them with the skills, know-how and motivation to build on these promising beginnings. Unfortunately a large proportion of the programme graduates had experienced serious setbacks occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic which caused many of them to lose jobs and/or freelance contracts. At the time of writing, very few businesses in the creative sector are recruiting and it is clear that this group of disadvantaged young people will need ongoing support, particularly in networking with employers, (re-) building their profile and brand and, in many cases, learning whichever new skills are most in demand, in order to resume their career paths.
Conclusion The single most important finding of this evaluation is that the current model of service delivery appears to be extremely effective, meeting participants’ approval in This is Me Final Evaluation
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terms of its quality and relevance as well as generating positive career outcomes. It is notable that although Bauer Academy and Collage Arts adopted very different approaches to engaging disadvantaged young people into training and mentoring designed to equip them to develop careers in the creative arts sector, both appear to be equally successful and there were some key commonalities across the two approaches: •
The emphasis on building confidence and validating existing skills.
•
The opportunity for participants to engage in the hands-on development of skills with considerable contact with people already working in the industry.
•
The personal and caring approach which continued after completion of the training element.
•
The emphasis on flexibility and making maximum benefit of all opportunities for paid or unpaid work within the sector as a way of gaining access to their desired work environment.
Provided that the economy recovers to the extent where it is again looking for talented and motivated young people to recruit, it is clear that these 200 This is Me graduates will be well equipped to take advantage. However, they may well need additional support in what seems very likely to be an extremely difficult next few years in the employment market.
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