The event took place at the University of Wales, Newport and featured course taster sessions, a networking lunch and speed networking with BBC Wales, S4C, MEDIA Antenna Wales, Film Agency Wales and the Welsh Government. Participants were able to discuss development funding with representatives such as:

• Meirion Davies, Margaret Hughes and Elin Morris, S4C
• Kathryn Wolfe-Adams, Welsh Government
• Elis Owen, BBC Wales
• Judy Wasdell, MEDIA Antenna Wales
• Tracy Spottiswoode, Film Agency Wales

The 35 participants came from all over Wales – including Llanelli, Trefforest and Cardiff – and left some fantastic feedback:

“This was a brilliant event. I can’t believe we were able to sit and chat informally with key figures in the Welsh creative industries.” – Tracy Burton, Freelance Writer

“Great day @AcademiPlus launch! Speed networking was good, really useful for creative professionals! #SAPlus” – @NerR1

“@AcademiPlus great to meet you today…thanks for all your efforts…it ran smoothly and was really useful. Thanks again.” – @RedBeetleFilms

“Very inspiring.” – Marilyn Court-Lewis, Freelance Writer

“Great day at the @AcademiPlus workshop taster event.” – @GetHigherWales

The course highlights the central role of marketing and innovation in the creation of competitiveness within organisations, as well as the need for contextual marketing approaches that create competitive advantage within constantly fragmenting market spaces.

We had a great couple of days on the Marketing for Creative Industries course earlier this month and the course will be running again – so sign up for our mailing list to keep updated. Sign up here.

Marketing for Creative Industries helps participants understand entrepreneurial marketing for creative businesses that are in the early stages of development.

The course highlights the central role of marketing and innovation in the creation of competitiveness within organisations, as well as the need for contextual marketing approaches that create competitive advantage within constantly fragmenting market spaces.

The course will be running again so sign up for our mailing list to keep updated. Sign up here.

Here’s a snapshot of what we got up to…

Free taster sessions and speed networking for creative professionals

To celebrate the launch of our new short courses, we are inviting creative professionals to come and find out what we are all about.

On 29 March the EU-funded Skillset Academi +  will be hosting a free event in association with MEDIA Antenna Wales at the University of Wales, Newport. The day is open to all and will include free Skillset Academi + course taster sessions. Participants will also have the opportunity to meet the staff and talk through their specific training needs.

Skillset Academi+ offers full and part-funded, flexible, bite-sized short courses in film, TV, animation, interactive media, games, radio, fashion, publishing and photography – covering everything from business development to high-level craft skills. Participants have the opportunity to develop their technical or business skills, network with industry professionals and learn new ways to grow their business.

The courses are designed and delivered by our higher education partners, the University of Wales Newport, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Swansea Metropolitan University and Aberystwyth University, in conjunction with industry professionals. Each of the courses will have at least one established industry expert as part of the delivery team.

After a morning of taster sessions, a networking lunch will be followed by speed networking with BBC Wales, S4C, MEDIA Antenna Wales, Film Agency Wales and the Welsh Government. This will allow participants to discuss accessing development funding with representatives including:

-          Geraint Rowlands, Interim Director of Commissioning, S4C

-          Margaret Hughes, Head of Business Affairs, S4C

-          Elin Morris, Director of Corporate and Commercial Policy, S4C

-          Kathryn Wolfe-Adams, Business Development Executive, Creative Industries Sector, Welsh Government

-           Elis Owen, Head of TV Commissioning, BBC Wales

-          Judy Wasdell, Manager, MEDIA Antenna Wales

-          Tracy Spottiswoode, Development Executive, Film Agency Wales

The Skillset Academi+ scheme is funded by the EU’s Convergence European Social Fund (ESF) through the Welsh Government and is part of the Work Based Learning scheme. If you are in private sector employment or are self-employed and live and/or work in West Wales, North West Wales and the Valleys, you may be entitled to a full or part-funded  place on the range of courses offered by Skillset Academi+.

The Skillset Academi+ Launch Event takes place on 29 March 10am-4pm at the University of Wales, Newport City Campus. Entry is free but registration is required.

To sign up click here.

The SPP is a blue chip training initiative designed to hone the skills of network TV producers to the level of series producer. Over the course of 10 months, the SPP will provide a range of top flight masterclasses and specialist training in series producer skills and offer unprecedented access to commissioning editors and key decision makers within the BBC.

The programme begins on 23 May 2012 and is open to freelance, independent and BBC staff producers with a strong track record in network television.

It is aimed at indigenous talent in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the North of England and those who wish to relocate to live and work in these regions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/news/view/spp2012

Closing date for receipt of applications is Thursday 15 March 2012

Further details of courses will be published week by week.
All courses will be run in 2012 and again in 2013 and 2014.

Sign up here for our ebulletins to make sure you hear about the courses first!

As part of the Work Based Learning programme, Skillset Media Academy Wales and its partners, the University of Wales, Newport; Aberystwyth University, Swansea Metropolitan University and UWIC, the creative media training programme aims to meet the needs of industry employees and freelancers in the Convergence region of West Wales and the Valleys.

Skillset Academi+ was first piloted in Wales from 2009 to March 2011, during which time the scheme assisted over 350 industry professionals by running 54 courses.  Having used this opportunity, which was funded by HEFCW, the Academy has fostered new partnerships with experts and has proven a track record of targeted training appealing to a wide cross sector of the industry. This autumn, the second phase of training will be funded by the EU’s Convergence European Social Fund (ESF) through the Welsh Government.

“The Creative Industries are a key priority sector to contribute to Wales’ economic growth, as identified in the Welsh Government’s Economic Renewal Strategy”, said Hannah Raybould, Project Manager . “ The Media Academy hope to ensure that the projects’ Higher Education partners will play a key role in taking this agenda forward, with a particular focus on up-skilling those already working in the industry.”

“We are really excited to take the Skillset Academi+ programme into a new phase which will allow the University partners to build on their MA and short course portfolios. The team we now have in place is a team who have a track record in delivery of courses for new entrants and who have extensive knowledge of the industry and the training challenges they face.”

Skillset Academi+ project coordinator Alex Leadley has been recruited to the post at a crucial time in the project setup.  Ms Leadley is no stranger to the programme, having worked alongside the pilot team in her role as Media Academy Wales Placement Coordinator. She explains:

“I am delighted to be offered this opportunity to further my involvement with the creative industries in Wales by providing exciting training opportunities to continue the growth and development of those working in the sector and cement the importance of University short course provision within the wider economic and political agenda in Wales.”

She continues: “Research has shown that creative media employees and freelancers see certain barriers to training  including cost, location, duration, and non- flexibility.  The project will respond to these barriers by creating innovate, meaningful and adaptable training across a range of sub sectors to include animation, photography and design.”

“This autumn and into the spring we will be launching 30 short courses, which cover areas identified by Industry and endorsed by Skillset Cymru as adding the most value to employees and their companies, including, business development,high level craft skills and leadership and management skills.  All courses will require 30 hours of contact time with tutors and participants will have the option to gain credits towards an MA.”

During the course the participants have been mentored in different leadership styles such as Narrative Leadership by

Leadership for Creative Businesses with Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan

Geoff Mead, The Connected Leader with Emmanuel Gobillot, and Collaborative Leadership with Nick Jankel.

Sue Jeffries Skillset Academi+ Coordinator said: “to my knowledge no other course joining Higher Education Institutes and the media sector has been so ambitious in its aims and objectives. Hopefully, we have created through the Leadership for Creative Businesses course a group of people who can turn to each other as a network to move the industry forward during these difficult times for the sector as a whole.”

Amongst the courses funded and arranged by SA+ until the end of March, there will be an exiting High Definition Event held at Enfys Studios on the 18th of March at two thirty. This is a free opportunity for the sector to meet the people who have already invested in HD, and the companies who are at the forefront of HD product development. Company representatives who will be at the event include Canon, Panasonic and Avid. SA+ in conjunction with the Skillset Media Academy will be holding an industry workshop Hybrid Distribution, by the internationally renowned distribution expert Peter Broderick, on the 31st March. This is an excellent opportunity for film and TV producers to explore new ways of distributing and marketing their projects.

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A prestigious European scheme aimed at developing the next generation of multiplatform creators will be co-ordinated in Wales for the first time, it has been announced, after funding worth £80,000 has been secured by the Skillset Media Academy Wales and its European partners.

The Welsh Academy has today announced that funding for the Transform@Lab has been secured from the European Union MEDIA Initial fund to run the high-level scheme in various European locations in 2011.

The Transform@Lab will be hosted in Wales by the University of Wales, Newport, and in Europe by two of the leading media schools: the Danish Animation Workshop, Viborg; and the Maholy-Nagy University of Art & Design, Budapest.  The intensive lab will offer nine trainees selected in early 2011 the opportunity to attend 17 days of residential workshops over six months.

(left to right) Hannah Raybould, Skillset Media Academy Wales Project Manager, Derek Lawther, Dean of Newport School of Art, Media & Design, Alex Gallop, Skillset Media Academy Wales Marketing Coordinator.

“Entrepreneurship and graduate development is at the heart of what we do at the Newport School of Art, Media and Design,” said Dean of NSAMD, Derek Lawther, “and with the move to our new city centre campus, where we will work side by side with the Business School, we are looking to offer new and innovative learning for a worldwide audience. The Transform@Lab firmly positions the University and our forward thinking staff within an exciting new European context of partnership and discovery and we look forward to drawing on our industry links to offer an innovative new scheme.”

This will be the first time that MEDIA Initial Training has been approved for a training provider in Wales, and the funding has been secured through the support and advice of the MEDIA Antenna Wales and following groundwork undertaken at initial meetings and attendance at conferences funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales for the development of the Media Academy Wales in 2005-10.

The creative media scheme aims to address the current industry need to develop cross-platform creatives and will draw on the Europe-wide pool of recent graduates of animation, games, interactive media, writing and producing degrees.

The nine graduates selected will also benefit from studio visits and networking events with industry professionals and e-support through online learning modules before they put their finished projects before a Dragon’s Den style industry panel in a pitching session.

“The Skillset Media Academy Wales put together a hugely impressive application,” said Judy Wasdell, Head of the MEDIA Antenna Wales. “We are delighted that they are the first Welsh recipients of MEDIA training funding.  The pan European dimension of the Transform@Lab offers participants the opportunity to benefit from access to leading European professionals and offers invaluable networking opportunities.”
The Lab will guide participants on the latest techniques for multiplatform content creation, from mobile phone apps to web publishing and digital workflows, as well as studying the craft of script writing for the interactive audience. In addition, they will concentrate on areas such as online copyright, compliance, funding and budgeting – essential knowledge for new entrants in the field.

“This training presents exactly what is needed within the media industry to enable designers to take advantage of the full range of new platform opportunities, said Jenny Hann, Head of Design and University of Wales Newport’s School of Art Media and Design.

“This European tri-nation development has been two years in the planning but I am thrilled to see it now coming to fruition. Course developers and participants will benefit from this training and the timing is for the Transform@Lab progamme is perfect.”

Hannah Raybould, Project Manager of the Skillset Media Academy Wales concluded; “This is an exciting new development for the Academy and we are looking forward to putting the lessons we have learnt delivering innovative industry-led training over the past five years into practice for a wider European audience. And we are very excited at the prospect of working with the brightest new crossplatform creatives to help them develop their ideas and progress their careers.”

Those attending will be offered European flights, transfers, accommodation, meals, all training and course materials for the fee of 785 euros (£650) for the 6 month course.

The Transform@Lab launches a new website in mid-December and will be opening for applications in early January. The full programme will be announced in January.

www.transformatlab.eu