A glimpse behind the scenes at The Lowry, a workshop on creating Manga/Anime art and a focus on careers in the arts were just some of the activities young people could try during Connect Salford's recent Discover Your Future programme.
Delivered in partnership with The Lowry and The Big Life Group, the first Discover Your Future was designed for local 16–18-year-olds not currently in education, employment or training. It offered the opportunity to build career skills, explore new career paths and gain experience to add to CVs.
Discovering The Lowry
At The Lowry Art Gallery, young people had the opportunity to talk to staff and discover what the gallery does and the various careers it supports, including venue management, marketing, sound and lighting technicians, stage management, health and safety, box office, corporate hospitality and more. They also got a special behind-the-scenes tour showing how everything works and how the various job roles fit together in this award-winning national venue. At the end of the tour, everyone had the chance to take part in a hands-on mocktail making workshop, delivered by the Lowry hospitality team.
Discover Your Future participants had the opportunity to meet venue staff and find out about the range of careers available at The Lowry.
Young people also got a sneak peek behind the scenes to discover the different technical careers on offer.
Fraser Thomas, Youth Employability and Skills Manager for The Lowry said: “It has been fantastic welcoming young people to The Lowry and collaborating with Career Connect to offer creative employability opportunities. I was impressed with how engaged and how well the young people interacted with the staff. Hopefully, we have opened a couple of more career avenues for them to explore. A couple of young people will be starting on a 10 week placement soon which is great! I look forward to our next collaboration soon.”
Discovering Confidence, Resilience and Manga Art
At the Langworthy Cornerstone, Stacy Gray from The Big Life Group shared tips and advice to help build young people’s confidence and resilience while finding jobs, training or college courses. Local artist Paul Pickford delivered an interactive workshop on how to create Manga/Anime artwork, and there were special sessions about work and training from local providers including YMCA Training, Manchester Beauty College, The Princes Trust, Salford City College Apprenticeship team and others.
Local artist Paul Pickford delivered an interactive workshop on how to create Manga/Anime artwork.
Participant’s Feedback
What our participants said:
- “It was great seeing the various job roles, especially the art galleries and stagework.”
- “I really liked the drawing and interaction, and when people talked to us about colleges and apprenticeships.”
- “I’m so glad I came. It was calmer and more easy-going than I expected. Everyone was really welcoming.”
Zaihera Chaudhry from Career Connect Salford said: “The feedback we’ve had from Discover Your Future has been great and this has been one of the best loved events that we’ve ever delivered. Staff from our local partners were super encouraging and made sure to include everyone who took part – whether confident or shy. Everyone I spoke to said they thoroughly enjoyed the activities, and many said it was nice to get out and meet others in the same position as them. We’ll be looking at doing more activities, centred around mindfulness and retail, in the coming months.”
What’s Next?
Discover Your Future will return at the end of May 2024, and the team are already developing a programme looking at various aspects of social media/marketing, plus wellbeing strategies for people looking for work, education or training courses.
