The Kent Community Foundation has supported a number of Academy FM projects, and we're very grateful for their support and appreciation of our educational work.

 

This project's aim was to give young people a better understanding of careers, employment and employers. Our radio station is based within a school and we've become very aware that many young people know what area of work they might be interested, and they may know their own skillset, but they don't know much about the specific jobs out there, and have never spoken to anyone working in that field. We thought that we could do something about this.

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We ran an extra-curricular project with 58 young people, age 10-15, attending the Folkestone Secondary Academy and local primary schools. We trained 28 in how to prepare and conduct interviews with local business owners and professionals; they recorded 27 interviews about industry, employment, what employers are looking for, attitude in the workplace, and qualifications required for particular roles - the numbers of young people we worked with, and the number of interviews, exceeded our original brief.

 

We will created a library of interviews that guide young people about the local business community and how to be employed in it – feedback from Careers Guidance professionals was very positive, and you can hear samples below. In addition to this, some of the young people gained a better understanding of Social Media Management

 

These interviews were broadcast on a variety of shows in the week, and in shows recorded on Saturday mornings with a group of children attending a weekend club in the Academy - for all these young people, the radio training played a role in improving communication skills and self-confidence.