HOST BROADCAST TRAINING INITIATIVE

150 new trainees employed at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

The brief

To challenge ourselves to create a training scheme that would address the lack of diversity in sports production and deliver a positive socio-economic legacy to our Birmingham Commonwealth Games project. The initiative had to be ambitious yet attainable. And the ability to evidence our achievements was key.

Technical Operations Assistants

Digital/Social content creators

Production Assistants

Floor Managers

Loggers/Runners

61%

from underrepresented groups

The How

For the two years leading up to the Games we engaged with communities, colleges and universities across the West Midlands to identify and train-up the next generation of television professionals. Our mission was to target those most underrepresented in our industry and give them an opportunity to take their first step on the career ladder.

The initiative delivered training via bootcamps, role specific mentoring and work experience. 150 of the trainees were employed on the host broadcast at Games-time. 61% were from underrepresented groups.

We continue to mentor our trainees and have held careers days designed to give them a chance to network and learn more about industry opportunities with one-to-one interviews and a series of masterclasses.

The Impact

We’re immensely proud that many of our trainees have secured jobs in the industry. There are many success stories. Three women in particular made such an impression that they were offered employment in a sector that is historically male dominated - Deepali Mistry for Timeline, Aniyah Butt for Cloudbass and Mariana Galego for Gravity Media. A special mention too for Preetcharan Singh who quickly progressed to operating a live RF camera on BT Sport’s rugby output and Karum Cheema who worked with Optomen as a Camera Assistant on the Great British Menu.