Open Door Awards success stories
Half way through its life-span, Skillset's Open Door Awards did exactly what it said on the can, and threw open those hard-to-prise media industry doors to bright new talents from London's minority ethnic groups.
Take animator Rachel Victor-Sampson, for example. One of the beneficiaries of the first round of Open Door Awards, which kicked off in November 2005, Rachel spent three days on a rare work placement at Oscar winning animators Aardman. Over that time Rachel received invaluable advice and guidance from the specialists at Aardman and learnt all the ins and outs of packaging up a project proposal for prospective commission.
During a jam-packed three days, she had a tour of the company, met and networked with the Aardman team, played with Wallace and Gromit, and received training in animated feature production. To cap it all, on her last day Rachel was put in the hot seat to pitch her project idea to Aardman's Broadcast & Development Manager Helen Brunsdon. Rachel left the Open Door scheme with a professional production portfolio. The scheme also assisted Rachel in finalising her project The Purple Emperor - an animated story about a caterpillar called Darius who has trouble making the transition into a butterfly.
Rachel's was by no means the only success story on the Open Door Awards. Most of the beneficiaries from Round One finished their projects, and were shown at the graduation Showcase in February 2007. Among them was Sue Ng, who successfully secured a full time contract as Production Co-ordinator at BBC Documentaries in April 2007.
Fellow Round One beneficiary Paul Akintunde, had his short HD film Natty on the Run selected for the bfm film festival. Paul sent his film - a drama which looks at how the power of music can be used to combat racism and promote racial tolerance - to award-winning poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who commented:
"Paul Akintunde is an imaginative filmmaker with a great sense of purpose. In his short film Natty on the Run, he has managed to compress a powerful idea into eight minutes of engaging viewing. I am convinced that given the right support his ideas can be developed to reveal even more of his talent, which would in turn allow viewers to see the world through new spectacles."
Natty on the Run premiered at the popular diversity bfm film festival in 2006, which Skillset was proud to sponsor.
The beneficiaries of Round Two also did some great things. After their induction in July 2006, reports about the 24 participants from training providers at VET and BBC Training & Development were overwhelmingly encouraging and positive. One notable success story was Ramaa Sharma, who, prior to entering the scheme, had been a freelance journalist for numerous London RSL's, ending up at BBC Asian Network.
Ramaa was convinced that the Open Door scheme would help build her confidence, increase her skills and ultimately open up networks to progress her career into mainstream journalism. She was right. Ramaa successfully secured employment as a mainstream news journalist, and is now BBC London's East London Reporter. Look (and listen) out for her on screen, online and on the radio.
And finally, Rehan Shafiq was picked for the first round of Channel 4's reality TV show Get Me the Producer. Past graduates of Skillset's schemes have gone on to secure employment at broadcast networks such as ITV, MTV, and BBC 1xtra.
The Skillset Open Door Awards were free, and provided a passport of media skills training for London media talents who were disabled or from minority ethnic or under-represented groups who were seeking their next step up the career ladder. The scheme included industry-led master classes, BBC skills training, professional mentoring, careers guidance, networking opportunities and industry work experience placements.
The Skillset Open Door Awards were funded by the European Social Fund, the London Development Agency and the BBC. The scheme was delivered under clause 37 of the Race Relations Act which allows training organisations to run programmes for people from black and ethnic origin groups which have been demonstrated to be under represented in a particular industry. Skillset's research has found that 7% of the workforce of London's audio visual industries are from black and ethnic minorities, compared to 35% of the overall population of inner London.
