Last month we said goodbye to our recent Classical Futures placement and in-house Digital Communicator Andrew Campbell.

The project is generously supported by The Holroyd Foundation, The Hoppy Trust and Lindsay Walsh and is in partnership with Reform Radio. ‘Classical Futures’ aims to give a young person a great first job in the arts and a kick-start to their career. Each year we recruit an individual from across the OnSide Youth-Zone network of Greater Manchester to come and join the team here at Camerata as our Digital Communicator.

We run a series of open call workshops in YouthZones in Oldham, Gorton and Manchester to show young people what opportunities are available to them within the arts, as well as give them some basic skills in digital marketing. Then we invite a handful of individuals to interview and make our recruit.

Last year the position was held by Andrew Cambell who we recruited through the Mahdlo Youth Zone in Oldham. Andrew has just managed to secure his next job working within Digital Communications for The Growth Company – a job Andrew says he wouldn’t have got if it wasn’t for his time with us.

Ali  Sadaqat, the Employability & Enterprise Coordinator of Mahdlo Youth Zone had this to say about Andrew :

‘”I am immensely proud of what Andrew has achieved and seeing his journey starting at Mahdlo Youth Zone from a young boy who was lacking in self-confidence and self-esteem and developing into a very pleasant young man with a positive outlook of life.  This has only been possible by partnership work with Manchester Camerata and Sebastian Mariner going the extra mile listening to suggestions and adapting the recruitment process in order to accommodate the needs of the young person. Andrew definitely has a spring in his step and is looking forward to his next adventure. Well done Andrew I am really proud of you !”

This year the position will be held by Reeco Liburd who we recruited through our local HideOut Youth Zone in Gorton.

Paul Lewis – Volunteer Recruitment & Training Manager from HideOut Youth Zone had this to say about Reeco’s appointment.

“HideOut Youth Zone has recently partnered with Manchester Camerata and Reform Radio to support a new project called Classical Futures, which aims to support people into the field of classical music. As part of this new project, Reeco Liburd, 19 was successful in obtaining a new role as Digital Communicator.

Reeco is an ambitious young person with lots of talent.  Through self-directed learning, he developed his skills which perfectly fitted a digital comms role, and it is great to see him secure a job that he is genuinely passionate about.  Reeco represents many young people from the local area, who have the skills and experiences suited for employment, but as yet do not have tangible examples of their ability in order to successfully compete in a standard competency-based recruitment process.  The Classical Futures project is a great example of an initiative that recognises this barrier and support young people into employment, without a clear track record.

Young people just need to be given the opportunity and through this partnership, we hope to have many more success stories like this in the future.”

We are so proud of all the great work Andrew has done for us here at Manchester Camerata, we wish him all the success for the future and cant wait to see the fantastic things Reeco will do for us.

A huge thank you to the Holroyd Foundation, The Hoppy Trust and Lindsay Walsh for making this project possible.

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