They are some of the most inspiring, engaging and informed people you could ever wish to meet, but it’s not always easy for 16- to 25-year-olds to break their way into the creative industries. Things have been a bit less difficult over the past four weeks, however, as around 100 young people have been taking part in a series of courses, covering four different areas: music, theatre, film-making and radio DJing. They were created by ŠKODA in partnership with the Prince’s Trust as part of the former’s Driver’s Seat Initiative, which aims to celebrate independently minded people who want to make a positive difference to the world.
To help the process, a mentor gave a one-hour session for each of the courses. Here, we’ve spoken to each of those mentors about what they learned from the brilliant young minds they spent time with.
‘They were clued up about broadcasting’
Kate Hutchinson, freelance journalist, broadcaster and DJ
Kate Hutchinson. Photograph: Alex Zalewska
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It’s been a while since I’ve come face-to-face with a room of people who probably prefer Snapchat to snail mail, and I didn’t know if the under-25s of today would even know what a radio is, let alone think broadcasting is still cool. But I needn’t have worried. The group I gave my radio introduction to were switched-on, clued-up, and already knew a lot about what we talked about, especially about what makes an engaging broadcaster. Many of them were already hosting their own shows, which they were capturing on their social media channels, and I loved that they collectively called the show they put together for Reform Radio The Lazy Zombie’s Guide To Youth – a tongue-in-cheek nod to negative stereotypes about their age group. So I suppose the main thing I learned was to never underestimate millennials.”
‘They talked about mental health with no judgment’
David Sugar, producer and songwriter
“They brought honesty to the conversation about mental health, and the difficulties people have in music. I was really encouraged by the level of candour. It’s been a reality for me – not personally, but with people I’ve worked with – and they wanted to talk about that. They were prepared to ask some big questions. Just being that little bit older I’ve probably had quite a lot of internal repression about it, so it was amazing to be with a bunch of young people who didn’t bat an eyelid about words like depression or psychosis. They were just being met head-on with no judgment. That was the most enlivening thing. There was an awareness of it being a reality of existence, like any other health issue.”
‘I was amazed by their sheer creativity’
Dean Rodgers, director of Rogue Productions
Dean Rodgers. Photograph: James Cannon for the Guardian
“I was genuinely blown away by how quickly they were coming up with concepts, and amazed by their sheer creativity. When I’d finished my presentation about my work – and they’d never really heard about interactive immersive theatre before – I asked for questions, and they just started firing ideas at me. One of them wanted to do a dead space experience, on a broken-down spaceship that you had to repair. They wanted lots of experiences where you were running and hiding from monsters. And, completely unprompted, they started suggesting dining experiences where they could eat as part of the show, and there’d be a food fight and that sort of thing. Really nice stuff. They had no inhibitions at all.”
‘They knew exactly what they wanted to do’
Effie Pappa, award-winning animation director
“I was really impressed by their vision. There was one girl on the course who knew exactly what she wanted to do, which is rare – at her age, I had no idea. She was like: ‘I do sound design, I work with horrors.’ She completely justified her opinion – she said she wants to do sound design because there is so much freedom. I thought it was fantastic.”
To find out more about ŠKODA’s Driver’s Seat Initiative visit skoda.co.uk/dsi
