The Barnsley College Digital Media Masters Become the Students

The Barnsley College Digital Media teaching team will be trading places with their students as they undertake a week long programme of work placements in industry settings as part of their continued professional development.

The initiative has been supported by Helen Valentine from the Sheffield City Region Enterprise Adviser Network and Tracey Johnson from the Digital Media Centre, who have both helped to get the idea off the ground and pair the teaching staff with companies such as ITV’s Emmerdale, Edelman UK, Deadline Digital, Ledgard Jepson, Visualised It, The Star, Pitstop Productions and Bob’s Business. The businesses will be providing the team with a variety of placements, workshops and training.

This week-long programme has been created to give the teaching team the opportunity to develop their abilities in the ever changing and developing media landscape, giving them firsthand experience in new innovative techniques and processes, current trends and the latest industry standard software being used within media roles including digital marketing, video journalism and special effects. 

With the introduction of T Levels in the coming year, the Digital Media teaching team are keen to take away from the programme the necessary tools needed to deliver a curriculum that is exciting and equips students with the vital skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the media industry.

Jess Lee-Henderson, Digital Media Programme Manager at Barnsley College, said:

“It’s really exciting to be sending the team to some truly innovative companies, we are excited to learn and see how we can apply this to our lessons and teaching. It’s stimulating to be able to share these experiences with our students, giving them the insight that will help them to get the careers of their dreams. We hope that the experience will help to better position the College within the media industry by creating links and broadening our network of contacts.

“We have had an incredible response from businesses and we are grateful they are opening their doors to us, getting behind the initiative and offering a wide variety of opportunities. We are excited to go out on the placements and soak up everything we can so that we get back to the classroom with an exciting curriculum to deliver this September.”