Spotlight on Talent Match TV

Spotlight on Talent Match TV

By Simon Staskiewicz @SimonSaysLeics

In August 2014 Leicester saw a brand new training programme launch called TMTV. This new and innovative creative career development made a splash in the city and i was happy to be part of it. In partnership with local media company Seed Creativity, Talent Match Leicestershire (Big Lottery Fund investment project to help long-term unemployed young people, aged 18-24, designed to gain employment across Leicester & Leicestershire) and work with a group of unemployed young people who wanted to look at what youth really had to say.

TMTV was a free, one month programme for young people to learn how produce digital media and find out how to work in the Media and Online Publishing Industry. Producing an online magazine, editing and producing content about the talents of Leicester, celebrating the city and all the people who are doing positive things.

I initially was unsure what to make of TMTV when they visited Urchoice Young Peoples Project for a taster day as part of the launch of TMTV, I didn’t feel that I was interested in Media, but Michelle Gamble (Project Coordinator at UrChoice) encouraged me to go on it and see what happened. I’m so glad she did because I had the best time during the programme. I spoke to her regarding how she felt the TMTV programme went and why she got involved

“Urchoice got involved with the creation and publication of Diverse Beaumont. Diverse Beaumont Article”, Speaking of the benefits TMTV had “We we’re able to refer out young people to Seed Creativity for their advice and support for our young people.”

During the programme I was involved in many aspects of creating  articles over the month. From filming a Q&A session to creating and publishing the article on ‘The Work Programme - is it really working?’, which was looking at the government's flagship unemployed programme. During the programme we researched a variety of media outlets from Welfare Weekly to 38 degrees and other providers. Throughout the month, the team grew confidence in themselves and worked together to enable us to create and publish TMTV on the flipboard platform.

Talent Match TV also gave me the confidence to start a journalism career and I have had the pleasure of working with the Seed gang once again on this article, as well as launching my own brand called SimonSays.

I also spoke to Tom Davies, another of the contributors of TMTV, he said

“I got involved with TMTV because I wanted to find out how to produce an online article”.

When asked about the impact TMTV made, Tom said

“I think it’s made an impact because the people involved gained loads of skills and experience”,

When asked about if he would change anything he replied

“To be honest the programme went really well and there were no major problems with it, the only thing i would change was how long it was, I would’ve liked it to be spread out a bit more because we were only there 2 days a week, but other than that the project went really well”.  

I also spoken to Misaki Yuki about how she felt the programme went and how she got involved

“I got involved with TMTV through Chris Gray (at B-Inspired), As i was interested in media.”

Speaking of the benefits she got from the project, Misaki added

“I got a better understanding of media, video editing, being able to speak about about personal experiences with the Jobcentre and having it put into an article. Understanding how to create a non-biased article.”

I then asked Misaki about the impact Talent Match TV had on her, she added

“TMTV has helped me to rediscover my passion into photography, Which i am actively working towards amassing a portfolio.”

I finally finished our interview by asking Misaki if she could do TMTV again if she would change anything she added

“Different articles relating to topics affecting people, potential article looking at talents based around leicester and locations of places for people to go.”

Misaki will be building a portfolio of photography, she will also be doing a level 2 course in sports as parts of the HIPS course and also developing her skills as part of the Talent Match team.

Talent Match TV wasn’t a government made publicity stunt it was so much more…. Talent Match TV was a voice for the people who felt they were unrepresented by the current political parties and a wonderful creative team behind us.

@SeedCreativity Delivery Partner

@ur_choice_ypp Delivery Partner and Community Anchor for Beaumont Leys