Channel 4 is planning a string of “C4 Pop-Up” events designed to encourage young people from diverse backgrounds to get into the media industry.
The events programme, which is initially costing Channel 4 between £150,000 and £200,000, aims to reach 1,000 16- to 24-year-olds, particularly those who might not normally consider a career in media, each year.
The first Pop-Up will be held in Bournemouth on 9 May, followed by events in Norwich, London, Wolverhampton and Preston.
Channel 4 has previously held “4Talent Days”, attended by more than 3,000 young people, but hopes the new programme of events will extend its reach beyond those already engaged with the industry.
The broadcaster has partnered with agency MyKindaCrowd to work with hundreds of local organisations, including creative companies, public services and charities, as well as MPs.
Channel 4 head of people services Kathy Poole said: “When we announce we are going to a particular location, we get lots of people applying for a place on the day and they tend to be the kind of media-keen people who find us quickly.
“What we wanted to do was reach deeper into communities to access the people who are slightly more difficult to find and wouldn’t naturally find us anyway.”
The events will feature workshops on topics such as how to create a CV and how to edit, as well as opportunities to network with people in the industry and other hopefuls.
Each event will also provide details of a “challenge” where participants are given the chance to work with TV commissioners and production companies to produce a tangible project such as a documentary or game and win access to courses and technical equipment.
The programme is part of the Channel’s Diversity 360 charter that launched at the start of the year. The charter lays out the broadcaster’s commitment to encouraging greater diversity across the media, and its plans to make its own staff more representative of the UK population.
The charter commits Channel 4 to publishing data at the end of the year on how diverse the company is internally. The broadcaster has set targets for employing more representative proportions of women, black, asian and ethnic minority, LGBT and disabled people, both at leadership levels and across its workforce, by 2020.
“We have in the past been quite relaxed about staff declarations in terms of diversity issues,” said Poole. “We’ve just run a big campaign internally to get everyone to update their data so we have a more true reflection of the staff base here.
“We’ve set ourselves targets and we’re making good progress against that. Obviously a diverse sourcing strategy and making our roles attractive to diverse candidates is a key part of that.
“But we are a relatively small organisation with a relatively low turnover, so our opportunity to change our profile quickly is limited. That’s why we’ve set a five-year target rather than a one-year target.”
