West Midlands News and Opportunities
Date: Wednesday 12th March
Venue: Birmingham City University's School of Jewellery
Cost: Members of Enterprise Educators UK - £45, Non-members - £90, Students - £10
Creative Enterprise 2008 will explore current debates and practice in enterprise education for Art, Design and Media courses. The conference will give delegates an overview of enterprise curriculum development through practical demonstrations, networking opportunities and a showcase of the teaching models currently delivering the highest success rates in creating graduate entrepreneurs.
For all enquiries please contact Kate Beresford on 0115 9655603 or register your interest for the conference here www.enterprise.ac.uk
"If you don't have 10 minutes to stop and discuss the future of your business
.......your business may not have a future".
Skillset has teamed up with Train to Gain to provide a free and impartial skills analysis for your business, based on a real understanding of your sector. We'll also advise you on high quality, flexible training to suit your needs and help you access funding. And we'll do the paperwork.
What is Train to Gain?
It's a new, completely confidential service to help businesses develop by making sure staff have the right skills to do the job.
Train to Gain is already successfully sourcing free or best value training for creative media companies in the following areas:
- Leadership skills and Management coaching
- Project management, Marketing and general business skills
- Job-specific training, both basic and advanced.
To make sure you don't miss out email Pam Relton: pam@relton.fsbusiness.co.uk to find out more or book your session
Screen WM's Focus on Freelancers relaunched
Focus on Freelancers aims to develop the craft skills of those working in the screen media industry. The fund provides individual needs guidance and up to 70% of the costs of a course to develop the skills of both professional freelancers and individuals on short terms contracts. Made possible with funding from Skillset's Television Freelance Fund.
Also more one day PACT courses will be held at Screen WM in 2008. The next one scheduled is:
Coping With Archive Clips: 5th March 2008
A one-day workshop enabling production staff to access library material speedily, efficiently, economically and to best effect, within budget and timescale.
More information and application forms can be downloaded here Screen West Midlands
Deaffest website, the Deaf Film and TV Festival was held in November 2007
Skillset sponsored the Gala Film Awards at the Light House Media Centre in Wolverhampton. The festival celebrated and showcased the talents of Deaf media artists and film makers, nurtures new talent and brought together members of the Deaf and hearing film making communities from across the UK and overseas.
Take a look at the Deaffest websiteDeaffest website for more details.
Medianet is the home of Media Education in the West Midlands.
It is a media education network for the West Midlands and connects everyone working in media and education in the region to enable sharing of good practice, offer training and provide networking opportunities.
Visit their events diary page for an exciting range of activities in the region.
Or telephone: 01432 344039 or email MediaNet to find out more.
Blitz Games wins West Midlands EDGE AWARD for promoting practical and vocational learning.
The Edge Awards are now in its third year, and is a way of recognising and rewarding organisations that provide practical learning opportunities for young people. The Awards celebrate everyday firms doing extraordinary things to develop a new generation of skilled workers in a wide range of industries.
Now boasting five separate divisions (Blitz, Volatile, TruSim, Blitz Arcade and the Virtual Experience Company) the company also continues its huge long-term investment into BlitzWare, its in-house technology, which provides one of the best game development environments of any independent developer.
What will Blitz do with the award?
Blitz has earmarked the award money to fund a 'Learning Lab', which will deliver training solutions in a state-of-the-art environment, removing barriers and improving the overall learning experience. The extra funding will also enable Blitz to broaden their range of training modules and increase the training time that they can offer.
Read more here Edge Awards winners 2007
CONGRATULATIONS to SP/ARK Business Incubator in Wolverhampton nominated AGAIN for National Awards
SP/ARK, West Midlands' specialist business incubator for digital creative industries at Wolverhampton Science Park, has been nominated for the second time in a row for the prestigious UK Business Incubation (UKBI) Best Established Incubator of the Year Award. Since it was set up in 2004, SP/ARK has had tremendous success in assisting start-up companies in the digital creative industries to establish themselves and to develop by providing state-of-the-art office space, specialist IT equipment, mentoring, workshops and networking opportunities.
Some of the 25 businesses currently based at SP/ARK are creative specialists, who have graduated from the local universities are Graphic Artists, Web Designers, Film Makers, Video Producers, Photographers, Multimedia Artists, 2D & 3D Animatiors, Product Designers, Toy Designers, Performing Artists, Publishers. SP/ARK was praised for its successful implementation of quality business-support services and making it a hub for design services in Wolverhampton, the Black Country and the wider West Midlands.
To see what SP/ARK offers visit SP/ARK business incubator
Creative Alliance is pleased to announce that recruitment is open once again on Makers and Shapers - the highly successful business development programme.
We've built on past successes and introduced exciting changes including a partnership with Metapod to bring you better results! If you are a creative looking to develop a new business idea, visit Creative Alliance
Serious Games Institute in Coventry does research, and offers business incubation and showcasing services to people and companies involved in developing and working with games technlogy for non-entertainment.
Visit SGI's website for details of regional, national and international events.
Media Skills
Media Skills are pleased to announce that they have gained recognition for delivering courses to the Adobe Authorised standard following a successful application to become Birmingham's first Adobe Authorised Training Centre.
Also, nine unemployed Birmingham women spent five weeks with Media Skills learning skills including planning, filming, directing, editing and voice-overs, and produced two films that were given premieres in Birmingham city centre.
See Media Skills for more details on these and other training stories and opportunities.
Wolverhampton's Light House Media Centre is well renowned for nurturing creative animation and filmmaking talent with a crop of films produced and directed by ex-Light House trainees and bursary students being selected for some of the UK's most prestigious festivals.
FREE ANIMATION TECHNIQUES COURSES AT LIGHT HOUSE as part of CREATIVE COLLEGE IN THE COMMUNITY
Light House Media Centre is offering a selection of FREE animation techniques courses throughout 2007 and 2008. For further info on these and all other courses visit Light House Media Centre, call 01902 716055 or email info@light-house.co.uk
BLACK and MINORITY ETHNIC EXPERIENCE - BE-ME
BE-ME was established in 1999 to record the experiences of African-Caribbean and Asian people who came to Wolverhampton after World War II and is resolved to create models of good practice in education.
BE-ME has recorded over 100 audio/video interviews with respondents from Wolverhampton's African-Caribbean and Asian communities. The website also contains on-line learning packages created in conjunction with local schools and universities. Visit BE-ME's website