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Students visit BBC to pitch winning mockumentary for Rio Olympics

Creative Media students from The Manchester College were named ‘Over 16’s’ winners in the City & Guilds Team Challenge competition after pitching their proposed mockumentary ‘Carnival of Champions’ to a team of industry experts at the BBC Academy in Birmingham.

City & Guilds partnered with a social enterprise company, MyKindaFuture and the BBC to deliver this year’s Team Challenge competition to colleges, training providers and their students, which culminated in a final day at the BBC Academy. Team Challenge is an annual competition and a part of City & Guilds Workplace Skills programme. Workplace Skills is designed to prepare young people for the real work environment through employer interactions and practical learning experiences and is also an element of the City & Guilds Techbac programme.

The teams of students each created a ‘pitch’ for a new TV programme suitable to accompany the 2016 Rio Olympics which included the themes of health and wellbeing, social responsibility, equality and diversity, and sustainability. The teams had to do a 5-minute video pitch explaining what their idea was and why it would make a great TV programme, as well as a 10-minute live presentation on how team members worked together to create their pitch.

really good opportunity for us to find new and diverse talent

Creative Media Production students from The Manchester College’s Shena Simon Campus, Scott Dunwoodie, Sarah Hannan, Vinny Lee and Otis Sarge spent six weeks researching and developing their ideas. Their winning entry was a proposal for the mockumentary ‘Carnival of Champions’, together with details on branding, legacy and target audience.

The students were invited to the BBC Mailbox, Birmingham to showcase their team’s pitch and receive expert feedback and advice as well as a tour of TV and radio production areas. The students also got the opportunity to chat to BBC staff about their future career plans.

Rachel Heyes, tutor at The Manchester College said of the experience: “Team Challenge has taught students a lot of different employability skills, including teamwork and communication, as well as commitment to attend meetings outside regular class time to work on the project. It has been brilliant for them to be able to come to the BBC today and talk to experts in the industry - employer engagement is key.”

employer engagement is key

“We were very impressed by the creativity shown by learners at The Manchester College in developing their pitches. Competitions like this are also a really good opportunity for us to find new and diverse talent,” said Simon Broad, Academy Head of Operations and Development at the BBC Academy.

The students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and came away inspired and with some good ideas for planning a future career in film and television production. Rachel added: “It was a pleasure to work with them on this additional project and a delight to see their hard work recognised by such important organisations as City & Guilds and the BBC.”