What happens when you take young digital savvy students and team them up with big brands and digital agencies?
The Millenial Mentoring Programme has completed its first run yesterday with students from Hackney Community College and its Austin counterpart pitching their projects to a Texas audience.
Big contracts
The five-month programme involved three teams of four students aged 18-21, each including students from both Hackney Community College and Austin Community College.
After months of training and workshops, the students were given briefs from major brands including British Airways, Adobe and RetailMeNot.
Six weeks after receiving the brief, the teams presented their marketing solution on stage at Hackney House Austin yesterday afternoon.
The initiative, supported by Poke, MRY, Real-Time Content Labs and Shellsuit Zombie, hopes to create links that result in two-way mentoring.
Everyone’s a winner
The project was born out of an initial collaboration between Hackney Community College and Jon Burkhart of Real-Time Content Labs while planning the Tech City Apprenticeship in Creative & Digital Media.
Jon says the programme was set up for both parties to benefit.
In exchange for invaluable work experience, our apprentices can mentor CEOs and CMOs and help their brands stop showing up two weeks too late to the party.
For the successful pitches the clients have committed impressive budgets to making the briefs a reality.
Not only that, the students will have the opportunity to become interns working on the projects.
Role models
Ian Ashman, Principal of Hackney Community College, says when Tech City boomed on their doorstep, the college made a commitment to create opportunities from it.
With such high levels of unemployment here in Hackney, it’s so important that our young people have positive role models who can show them what’s possible in their lives and careers.