First week insight from our fab new Apprentices

The Mighty Creatives recently recruited Apprentices to support our business. Here is an account of how they found their first week with TMC.

Kate Smith-Atherton, Community Arts Apprentice

Wednesday 21^st March 2012

Morning

During my first morning at TMC, I arrived at 10am, where I met Jackie and Daisy for the first time. Over a cup of tea, I had a chat with Daisy about what TMC is, does, and aims to achieve. We also spoke about myself, why I wanted to work for TMC, and also what I was doing before I came to TMC.  After this Daisy lead me to the office, where I was shown where my desk was, I was shown the shared drive and how to access it, I was also shown how to read, send and reply to emails. I was introduced to Yammer, the TMC website and also asked to create an Avatar. Before lunch I was shown around the office, and introduced to the rest of the team, as I went round each member of staff introduced themselves and told me what their role is at TMC.

Afternoon

I went to lunch with the rest of the team, we went and had an all you can eat buffet chinese, here I spoke to members of staff on a more personal level about themselves, and everyday life. After lunch, with Jackie, I went through contracts, the EE form, we also discussed holiday and I was given documents to read on procedures and policies of TMC. I was then given a tour of the building by Daisy i. e the café, outside, toilets, kitchens etc. I was also told about and shown where the fire exits are and where we meet when the fire alarm goes off. For the rest of the day, I spent a couple of hours reading through the TMC website, as well as looking at a few documents from the shared drive i. e notes on meetings, and presentation notes etc.

Thursday 22^nd March 2012

Morning

During the morning, I was asked to catch a train to East Midlands Park Way, here I was met by Emma who then drove us both to Castle Donington. When we got to Castle Donington, we made our way to a parent and child event at Sure Start Children’s Centre. Here we met up with Sam, and also another member of staff who worked at the centre. We were there to observe one of the events that took place every week. In the centre there was a room which had different activities set up for the children. These consisted of ‘the black and white corner’ which was full of different fabrics, pillows, and objects which were only black and white. There was a water pit full of water and bubbles, trays full of ripped up coloured paper, and newspaper for collaging, pots, pans and spoons for the children to make noise, and also a couple of plastic pipes for the children to roll balls down. Slowly the children turned up with their parents. After a while, me and Emma joined in with the children and their parents, I ended up playing in the water pit with the children, getting splashed and covered in glitter (as one child, then all of them decided to put glitter in the water pit). We then had a break, a cup of tea and the children had a drink and a snack. Afterwards, each child was giving a tub of bubbles, we then went outside and started blowing these. We left a few minutes into this, and drove back to TMC’s office. Once back in the office, me, Emma and Ben then met with Ruth and a couple of her colleagues to enrol/register us with Leicester college. The meeting took a couple of hours, we filled in forms, discussed the apprenticeship scheme, talked about goals, and were given tasks to complete by the next meeting. I then had lunch.

Afternoon

For the rest of the afternoon I spent it reading through my policies and procedures documents, I filled in some forms regarding emergency information, bank details etc. I then did some reading upon Arts Award, and a few other bits on the TMC website.

Friday 23^rd March 2012

Morning

I attended a bridge planning meeting, this lasted all day. During the morning session we talked about the bridge, goal 5, NPO’s, organisations, partnerships etc. We then went round and explained what we each thought our job role was, as I had never seen my job role this was quite difficult for me, but i think I did okay. After this, we were then given a piece of paper with each other’s job description on it, we had to read the job description, decide on who’s job we had, and then feedback what we thought this persons job role/main tasks were. I found this task very useful and helpful in relation to understanding what me and everyone else did. Before lunch, we did a fun activity, which was called ‘head, heart, hands’ we had to write down what we knew, what we were passionate about and what we could do, basically what we thought we could bring to TMC through knowledge, belief and skills. This was also very helpful and enjoyable.

Afternoon

The afternoon was spent going through what each person/team was working on, and what we aimed to achieve by doing it. This involved everyone speaking, writing down ideas, and planning what was eventually going to happen. Basically a starting point for us all until our next development meetings. We went through a work programme and we allocated leaders for the time being for each action, this was a big help.

Monday 26^th March 2012

Morning

For the first part of the morning I wrote up my notes from Fridays meeting. I then had a safe guarding and equal opportunities with the other apprentices. Straight after this I met with Mary and Daisy to update Daisy on Fridays meeting (as she wasn’t present). We discussed the tasks we had been allocated, and I was given a couple of tasks to do before our next meeting. After this, I had a meeting about standards and equality and also the somewhere to programme. I was also given a task to do which related to the somewhere to programme.

Afternoon

I started the afternoon off by starting the task I had been given by Vikki for the somewhere to programme, this was to research and write down any events that are happening over the next year that we could attend to promote somewhere to. Towards the end of the afternoon I had a HBR standards and award meeting, here we did some more planning, I then finished off by carrying on with research.

Tuesday 27^th March 2012

Morning

Throughout the day I was asked to shadow Sophie and Dan, before doing this though I completed the tasks I was given by Mary and Daisy; typing up notes, creating our own plan chart etc. I then went to a meeting with Sophie about the DMU framework evaluation, followed by another meeting about the framework evaluation, this was to put the participation teams views across. We then had lunch.

Afternoon

After lunch, I had a meeting with Dan about Our State Of The Arts, he introduced me to the programme and website, and asked for my help on a presentation he had to give. I helped him by finding good, strong, positive and negative quotes young people had written on the website about an art or cultural event they went to. I really enjoyed this. For the last hour of the day, I had an introduction to Journals and Mobile TMC.

Ben Tuddenham, Finance Apprentice

Hi, my name is Ben and I am the Finance and Administration Apprentice at The Mighty Creatives. I applied for this role as I wanted to get into a career in finance/accounting, and it seems to be a great opportunity.

I have been involved in all sorts of tasks relating to the role, such as processing invoices and expenses, and assisting with the supplier payment run. I am now beginning to understand and take responsibility for the tasks I have been given.

I have met most people in the office now, and everyone seems to be very welcoming and friendly (I’m sure the people I have not yet met are just as fabulous). I have been

taken out for lunch (twice), to get to know my colleagues, which makes it a great place to work!

I have really enjoyed my first week here and am getting on well with both my work, and colleagues, and I’m looking forward to what the future holds!

Being a TMC Intern - Bekki Broadbent

In my application to be an intern with The Mighty Creatives, I stated that I wanted this opportunity because I wanted to learn how a real company works. I wanted to have first-hand experience on all the cogs in the machine, and to come away with a sense of knowledge about everything I have experienced.
I have been an intern for a month now, and have successfully had experience in different sectors within TMC. I have had experience in the hiring of new staff, both from application reading to interview days. This experience from the hiring point of view has given me a good insight into what a company is looking for which will be helpful considering I am graduating in 3 months’ time.

I also have helped out with the branding in terms of giving my opinion on the template of the new website, and seeing TMC liaising with other companies within the LCB. It’s good to see the companies working together, and also really good to see how much creativity is in one building! Being in this environment really makes me feel at home.

I also have been given a taster of running an event, and all it entails from the planning, to the venue booking, to generating interest for all those involved, in 5 weeks with a £1,000 budget. I have learnt a number of things, the two main ones being that:

1) People happily cancel on you at any time
2) People generally don’t reply

Having assumed people would reply, this has made the initial plan need to be incredibly flexible and also includes a lot of waiting to hear back from people. This is a huge learning curve in how it is to plan an event for a company as opposed to for a university piece.

I hope to get plenty more experience in different fields, and maybe spend some days sitting in and learning about how different sectors work.

Bekki

Insight from TMC Intern - Sarah Whitrick

Hi, my name is Sarah and I am an intern at The Mighty Creatives. The reason I applied for an internship with TMC is because they are so flexible and offer lots of great opportunities; it’s like having your own tailor-made internship. My interests are working with young people (particularly early years) and the Community. Getting an internship with TMC was great because I get to do what I want. The team, particularly Ben and Daisy, were brilliant in offering me opportunities and experiences that they think may interest you. They really make my internship feel personal, like it is centred around what I want rather than what TMC wants.

I have been an intern for over 2 months now and I’ve already done so many things and had so many opportunities. This includes working with Hazel, who specialises in Early Years and planning and training to carry out confidence-building workshops with young people – something of which I am really excited about. I go in to the TMC office every week on a Wednesday – the time always goes too fast! At the moment we are working on the workshops with a view to carry them out in the next few weeks. However, my internship does not just stop there. Daisy and Ben are constantly offering me exciting and unique projects and experiences that they think will interest me. For example, I am applying to a Young Workshops Leaders Scheme with Curve at the moment; something which was made accessible to me through TMC.

I get so much out of my internship that is constantly developing my skills as well as giving me great things to write on my CV. The workshop training I am receiving will eventually allow me to run a workshop under supervision with young people. Another brilliant thing about my TMC internship is that the team are never hesitant to help me with my University studies. They are a continuous source for resources and knowledge they are always willing to help me in any way that they can. Not only this, TMC gives me the freedom to get involved with the organisation. For example, during my first week of the internship, I got to help make improvements to the TMC office as well as offer advice on how to update the website. Most weeks, it hardly feels like an internship at all; I have been made so welcomed by everyone that it feels like I am a part of the team too!

Sarah Whitrick, DMU Performing Arts Student

Why Apprenticeships?

Did you know that over 46,000 people work in creative and cultural industries in the East Midlands and that this figure is expected to grow by 35% in the next 8 years….?

Were you also aware that currently over 60 % of the creative and cultural workforce in the region are graduates and that according to recent figures the number of registered Creative Apprenticeships in the East Midlands doesn’t even reach triple figures?

With yesterday’s disheartening news that unemployment for 16 to 24 year olds is currently at its highest level for 17 years with 1 in 5 young people nationally not able to find a job; TMC is even more committed to working within the sector to support the development of high quality, accredited apprenticeship in the creative and cultural sectors in the region. Not only are we currently in the process of setting up 3 apprentices working with Leicester College and New College Nottingham, and a further 6 creative apprentices with creative and cultural organisations in the East Midlands, but working with the National Skills Academy - Creative & Cultural, our ambition is to provide high quality mutually beneficial employment opportunities for young people in arts venues, festivals and cultural organisations.

Read about the 10 myths to creative apprenticeships here:
http://nsa-ccskills.co.uk/news/ten-myths-about-creative-apprenticeships-updated

During February we are hosting a series of events for colleagues in the sector to find out more about the services offered by the Skills Academy and bring together arts and cultural organisations and employers, Founder Colleges and other educational settings together to discuss, collaborate and build creative solutions to local issues.

For more information about the National Skills Academy events visit http://www.themightycreatives.com/information/sector-development/skills-academy/ or contact Vikki Pearson vikki@themightycreatives.com.

And look out for more exciting news about TMC’s new apprenticeship opportunities in the next couple of days ….

What's happening? Next steps for The Bank of TMC.

The last three months or so have been a really key period in the development of The Bank. We've been able to:

• support to our first 5 social enterprises to complete their business planning, register their new businesses and start trading
• raise the quality of our business development support, communications and marketing, by bringing on board new delivery partners
• extend our work with our Mighty Teams of young advocates and young investors 
• adapt our 'offer' and build our networks to work with young people who are not in education, employment or training, or who are at risk of being so
• work with consultants to create our 'case for support' to attract donors and philanthropists to support the Bank
• complete our plans for the wider 'roll-out' of The Bank of TMC in 2012

Central to this progress has been our new partnership working, which has enabled us to focus on the quality of our programme, particularly as it relates to the business development and mentoring offered to young social entrepreneurs. We've worked closely with Kate Cowan from Spring to Action to devise the bespoke programme of development, support, mentoring, training and inspiration that will be available to our new cohort of young entrepreneurs from March 2012.

In addition, we have also brought on board Louisa Day from digital communications agency Herdl and freelance whizz Adil Jaffer to collaborate with our team of young advocates on a new suite of marketing tools that will help The Bank 'speak' directly to our different target audiences - inspiring young people to get involved; explaining the benefits and possibilities to teachers, youth workers, parents, community activists, volunteers and all the other people in Leicester Shire we need to reach.

Our 'Ideas Generation' strand taking place in February, will give us the chance to test the thinking behind our revised programme of support, working with young people who are NEET and the agencies who support them including Connexions and Youth Offending / Probation Teams.

January and February will see the interim reports from our first group of young social entrepreneurs - their chance to let us know how their businesses are making money, empowering people and communities and trading responsibly.

Between now and March, the team will continue to develop our work on fundraising and promoting our offer, with a particular focus on how we can extend our collaborative work with the Mighty Teams of young people that help lead the Bank of TMC and inspire their peers. While there is much to be done and many challenges coming our way through austerity and general down-heartedness, we feel that we can continue to make a positive difference for and with young people.

2012 blog post from TMC Chief Executive

There are many blogs from Chief Executives at the start of 2012. They assess the world of children and young people, the social and economic challenges facing the country and opportunities in the year ahead. I want to focus a little closer to home, looking at what we have achieved in our first 3 years of being The Mighty Creatives and to look at what’s coming next.

Starting in 2009, we secured responsibility for Creative Partnerships in the East Midlands and rapidly developed a rich portfolio of additional programmes with the MLA, Big Lottery and other funders. This broad and ambitious body of work has given TMC and our partners the opportunity to engage with:

• Over 75,000 children and young people
• Over 350 schools
• Over 5,300 families/parents
• Over 4,500 teachers/creative practitioners
• Over 1,100 participants from community groups

[Source: “Evaluation of The Mighty Creatives”, November 2011, FOCUS]

As many of you will be aware, Creative Partnerships came to an end in the Autumn of 2011, concluding £6.9m of investment in the region’s schools and creative economy between 2009 and 2012. At our recent “Creative & Connected” open space event in Derby, delegates asked the question: “Was Creative Partnerships worth it?” The answer appears to be: “Creative Partnerships was definitely worth it! But we collectively want to ensure that the legacy is accessible and the knowledge and learning is not lost.” Now that we have undertaken the complex task of closing this world-leading programme, we will turn our focus on its legacy, evidence and impact.
But we have needed to secure and change TMC first.

In 2011, we were successful in securing Arts Council England’s new Bridge role, joining Arts Council’s national portfolio to help meet its goal of ensuring every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts and culture. Starting on 1st April 2012, we will work with artists, arts and cultural organisations to help develop their work with children and young people to ensure more children and young people experience the benefits of the arts. In order to get ready for this position, we have worked with Arts Council and our development partners, Arts Learning East Midlands, to agree what needs to be done. We have also needed to restructure our organisation, resulting in a number of loved and valued colleagues leaving TMC in 2012.

Preparation for the Bridge starts now with a period of fact-finding, intelligence gathering and analysis about the state of the arts in the region and what the priorities should be for enabling broader, deeper and higher quality access for more children and young people. Karen Birch will be leading this work as our new Programme Director and will be communicating with our partners very soon about these initiatives and opportunities.

Alongside our Bridge building work, TMC will also pursue Planet TMC, our business strategy focused on young people’s creativity in all its forms. 2012 will see us making a significant contribution to the Cultural Olympiad through somewhereto_, Journals, Big Dance, Dress the World and WEYA. We will also advocate for young people’s participation in enterprise through our work on the Bank of TMC, provide vocational training through Mobile TMC and promote the new Social Enterprise Qualification. Our work with learning settings continues through collaboration with a number of school clusters across the region and the direct delivery of services in Nottinghamshire and Northwest Leicestershire. And our commitment to empowering young people to make positive change happen strengthens through the launch of our MyWorld platform and associated leadership programmes.

If we had a New Year’s resolution, it would be twofold: to help more children and young people influence our organisation; and, to establish stronger collaborations with our many partners in the region and beyond. Despite the challenges around us, our combined passions can deliver even greater results for children and young people in 2012. And that isn’t a bad way to start the year.











Richard Clark
Chief Executive, The Mighty Creatives