As the BBC settle into their new premises at MediaCityUK, and other companies such as Baby Cow announce that they will be opening offices onsite, we asked 18-year-old guest writer William Smyth to investigate what the development will hold for young people looking to break into the creative industries. He uncovered plenty of opportunities for new talent looking to get a foot-hold in the sector, just as long as you don’t film there without a permit…

MediaCityUK is a unique development for Greater Manchester. It will be one of the largest and most important media hubs outside of London, especially for the television industry. It is the new home for five major departments of the BBC, which include Sport, Radio 5 Live, Children’s, Learning and Technology; as well as Breakfast TV.

On top of this will be new a new location for ITV Studios (including a brand new Coronation Street set), SIS and part of the University of Salford. But what does this development mean for young creatives wishing to embark on a career in media?

With such a large new development, there are potentially many new jobs. A proportion of workers have been relocated up from London to work for the BBC, but there are still gaps to be filled by local people. BBC director general Mark Thompson has said recently that there is potential for 1,000 new jobs. This is put in to perspective however when you realise more than 50,000 people have applied for a place at BBC North since the construction of MediaCityUK.

The BBC is running an apprenticeship scheme for over-16s, which will take in up to 100 people and give them training over the course of 12-18 months. People can also apply for Sport Apprenticeships and the BBC say that a News Apprenticeship is in the pipeline for 2012/2013. This provides an ideal foothold for getting in to the BBC, which can be a fairly time-consuming exercise if done from scratch via their grueling online application process.

If you manage to spend three years there and NOT make any useful contacts in the broadcasting world, you haven’t got the networking aptitude to make it in the media.

Opportunities for work at MediaCityUK go beyond the BBC however. They also go beyond the kind of jobs you would immediately associate with ‘the media’. The sheer scale of the development, and the nature of the companies that have moved there, mean that there has been an influx of small businesses to make up the supply chain for BBC and ITV.

The site is now home to both The Pie Factory and The Greenhouse, which together house space for around 40 companies. These largely consist of media-related businesses including Argosy (an international distributor of HD broadcast cabling), Scream Management (a children’s casting agency who teach performing arts for television, film and music), and Armstrong Legal (legal advisors for the creative and broadcasting industry). The sheer diversity of the companies based here opens the door to a much broader demographic, giving young people more ways in which to get involved.

If none of those companies are of interest, the opportunities for jobs in IT are numerous to say the least. Peel Media claim that the communications network is one of the most advanced in the world, containing over 200,000 kilometres of fibre optic cabling which is necessary to provide the high internet speeds needed for media production. This gives some indication of the size of the IT infrastructure that is operating in MediaCityUK, which will undoubtedly prove to be a source of employment. For those who prefer software to hardware however, the BBC is moving their Future Media and Technology department to Salford, which requires web engineers and app designers (for mobile apps such as iPlayer).

While many of the jobs in the creative sector may not strictly require a degree, the opening of Salford University on the MediaCityUK site is a good way for young people to get close to the action and get involved. There are no other universities in the country that can offer a media course right in the heart of such an important centre for television. There are many good media courses at universities around the country, however the proximity of Salford University to major BBC and ITV studios is ideal from the point of view of networking.

As Alex Connock, former CEO of the Ten Alps TV production company, says on the MediaCity blog, “…if you manage to spend three years there and NOT make any useful contacts in the broadcasting world, you haven’t got the networking aptitude to make it in the media”.

The creative industry (especially television production) is a very competitive environment, so it seems the most important thing when trying to get a job, apart from having connections, is to stand out from the crowd. The MediaCity blog advises that people should do something to try and give themselves a leg up in terms of getting noticed. This could range from making a short film if you want to be a director, to creating a blog if you want to be a writer. The competitiveness of job hunting, especially at this time, means that just a CV on its own often isn’t enough, so the more you can make yourself noticeable, the better.

The fact that such an important centre is now outside of London means that people living in the North may not feel they have to move South in order to get a job. The development has also sparked off The Sharp Project – a huge media development very similar to MediaCity, but for smaller, independent production companies. This also holds potential for employing budding creatives. The creative industry in Manchester has been revitalised, and all things considered, it’s difficult to see how MediaCity could be anything but positive for young people..

Final note:
In theory there are many opportunities for young people at MediaCity, however in practice it doesn’t seem to be such a friendly and open environment – as I recently discovered. I had gone to MediaCity with a camera in order to find people to interview (the video of which would have gone with this article), but five minutes after arriving in the main square I was approached by security and told I “needed a permit to film for security reasons”. For an environment that is supposed to be somewhere for young people to thrive, is this not a little contradictory?

William Smyth worked with Creative Times on a week-long placement in August 2011. This article was produced by him during his time with CT.