This ambitious programme worked with young people in West Somerset to help them explore digital and creative futures and careers. It was our response to the social mobility challenge in West Somerset, and our recognition that digital engagement must be deep and meaningful, especially with a teenage audience, if it is to have any substantial impact in a world flooded with content.
The project was supported over two years by the WestSomerset Opportunity Area fund. It launched with its first cohort in October half term 2018. We worked regularly with the group over four months with an enthusiastic, diverse group of local teenagers. We introduced them to bloggers, YouTubers, filmmakers, graphic designers, VR creators, photographers and gamers, all of whom they have worked with them to help them learn skills and develop their ideas. In October 2018, we visited Plymouth as a group, working with RIO to introduce them to innovative digital companies and entrepreneurs and in February took them to London to visit the gaming exhibition at the V&A, the ‘all that I know is on the internet’ exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery and to an interactive VR experience at the Saatchi Gallery. Later, we worked with a group of students as part of a work experience placement and with a smaller group of excluded students from West Somerset. Experiences involved making a pop video, filming with off-road vehicles for a promo, use of in-design and other Adobe Creative Suite products and gaming activities.
The project is not currently running due to the constraints of Covid and funding but the learning from it has informed our wider creative mobility work as part of our education strategy.
