Bauer’s Scottish Media Academy expands

The Scottish Media Academy is to run two more courses at Forth One and Clyde 1 following an initial run in July.

The Scottish Media Academy was created with the intention of discovering and developing Scotland’s future media talent. Its first session in July has already discovered a number of stars of the future from all over Scotland, including Bethan who joined the Academy because she is interested in working in television and radio.

Since completing the ‘Discovery’, multimedia entry level course, Bethan has been invited to work with the events team at Forth One, following a work placement at Forth One and is about to undertake another at the Clyde 1 news team. Bethan hopes these experiences will help kick start her career in radio and television. She said: “This was a great opportunity to learn firsthand from those that do the job every day. I have been really committed to learning more about working in the media and wanted to use my passion for journalism, so I am really pleased to have undertaken work experience at the two station’s newsrooms.

“The Academy helped me to develop my broadcast voice and I am really excited to be joining Forth One’s events team because not only will I learn more about what the station does, but, maybe one day, it will be me reading the news on air.”

Academy Director, Courtnay McLeod, is pleased that the Academy has already been such a success and is urging those interested in media to sign up quickly as spaces on the courses are limited to 20 on each level. She said:

“Helping people like Bethan find out more about working in the media is exactly what we set out to do when we set up Scotland’s Media Academy; and we haven’t just identified talent, we have found ways to develop it further. Creative, passionate and talented people are the life blood of our radio stations and this is a great way of finding out more about working in the media. Our courses aren’t only for people wanting to kick start a media career. People that are simply interested in the media world we all live in, or looking to get one step ahead by boosting their CV, should also get in touch.

“We are excited that in just three months the academy has already proven it works – we are finding talented people, providing excellent training, and introducing those who wish to join one of the country’s leading media organisations in a way that has never been done before”.

The brainchild of Graham Bryce, managing director of Bauer Media Scotland, and developed by the Fellows of the Higher Education Academy, the multimedia courses have been designed to cover the full spectrum of media channels including radio, TV, print, online and social media.

Academy courses are open to anyone aged 15 and over and have been structured over two levels: ‘Discovery’ for beginners and ‘Confidence’ for intermediate experience levels.