Award-winning advocate group for gender diversity within the broadcast manufacturing and services sector Rise, has collaborated with BT Sport, Sky and other industry partners to launch ‘Rise-Up’, a new industry-led schools outreach programme aiming to inspire and educate children about engineering and technology opportunities in the broadcast, media, and entertainment industries.
Since its beginning in 2017, Rise has delivered an award-winning mentoring programme, produced a series of events, seminars, and conferences and most recently launched its inaugural Rise Awards, which will be held at Europe’s largest media and entertainment show, IBC, in September 2019.
Over the last year, Rise has worked alongside universities and key industry partners to examine the current shortfall of new talent entering the broadcast technology sector, specifically examining engineering and technical operational roles.
The key message is that universities are struggling to recruit both male and female talent in broadcast engineering related courses, which is directly impacting the industry, creating recruitment shortfalls across the sector. In June of this year, Rise held a roundtable with five key industry partners from: BT Sport, Sky, dB Broadcast, EMS Technical Personnel and the BBC.
The discussion included looking at barriers to entry, struggles of recruiting talent for courses, and what the industry can do to actively change the current talent shortage.
The recommended action from the representatives was to encourage young talent in primary and secondary schools to look at engineering and technical roles as potential career paths. This is where the idea of ‘Rise -Up’ was born.
The central idea of ‘Rise Up’ is a programme of school workshops delivered throughout the UK to inspire children throughout their primary and secondary education, crucially enabling industry to remain in contact with them and encourage them to consider a broadcast engineering apprenticeship or degree, when they reach this level.
Following the Roundtable meeting, BT Sport Chief Engineer, Andy Beale, ran a test workshop in a primary school near Reading.
Tied in closely to the stage 3 STEM curriculum, this hands on one day event intended to give students access to broadcast equipment, learn technical and engineering skills, and an understanding of how STEM subjects link with real world careers.
Over the course of the day, students built a studio and then recorded a fun quiz show dubbed, ‘Rise-Up’. Students were overjoyed and fascinated by the day, with some of them aspiring to be engineers when they grow up.
“I will definitely take up an engineering career”
Girl, Aged 10
The test workshop demonstrated clearly that this type of workshop could have a real impact and encourage students to consider a career in the broadcast technology sector.
“In order to fully achieve a gender balanced workforce and also to ensure more broadly that there is a pipeline of diverse talent coming into the industry, we believe that this work needs to be undertaken,”
Carrie Wootten, Rise Director
“This programme of work will only be successful, if there is a collective effort from across the industry. We are actively looking for more industry partners to commit to this vision of encouraging a new generation of talent to enter the sector.”
“Since its launch in 2013, BT Sport is proud to have used the power of sport to change lives through several charitable and industry initiatives. These include The Supporters Club which has supported thousands of youngsters into employment and training. Today’s announcement builds on this commitment, while also deepening our commitment to the local community in which we are based.”
Andy Beale, Chief Engineer, BT Sport
Rise-Up has commitment from the following industry partners:
BT Sport, Sky, dB Broadcast, EMS Personnel, IABM, DPP
For more information on Rise Up, or to get involved please visit http://risewib.com/rise-up or contact Carrie Wootten at risementoringprogramme@gmail.com
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