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What is Live Skills?

The Live Skills project is currently piloting 3 innovative Vocational Education and Training (VET) curricula in the Audiovisual (AV) and Live Performance (LP) sectors.
 

The project will enhance skills in these sectors, from entrepreneurial and management skills to the use of cutting-edge digital technologies. Initially focused on two audiovisual professions, Sound Managers & Video/Film Editors; the project covers the following areas:

Digital & New Technologies

• Creative Media
• Security and Piracy
• Digital Art and Design
• Digital Marketing

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Arts Management

• Financial Management
• Project Management
• Marketing and communication
• Legal Management

Cultural Entrepreneurship

• Innovation
• Creativity
• Strategy
• Business Models

Who is Live Skills for?

Live Skills will enhance the skills and employability of young learners and professionals looking to develop a career in the Cultural and Creative Sectors.
 

• for current or aspiring sound managers and film/video editors.
• for any professional and young learner in the wider creative and cultural sector who wants to develop their management, business and digital skills.
• for employers in the cultural field who are interested in work based and lifelong learning.
   

The project will tailor the programme to a range of professions and other subsectors of the wider creative and cultural sector, to ensure that the material produced by the Live Skills project is both transferable and sustainable.

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Who are the Partners?

Led by the British Council, the project involves nine full partners across four countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and the UK) and two European-wide associated partners.

Cultural Organisations

• British Council
• National Institute for Cultural Research & Training – NIRCT

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Vocational Providers

• Belfast Metropolitan College (United Kingdom)
• Plovdiv School of Stage & Screen Arts (Bulgaria)
• AKMI Group of Vocational & Education Providers (Greece)

Social partners

• FAIR MediaSind – The Federation of Culture and Mass Media (Romania)
• IME GSEVEE - Small Enterprises Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (Greece)

Accreditation Body

EOPPEP National Organisation for Certification of Qualifications and Vocational Guidance (Greece)

How it Works

The project offers participants a mix of online and individual learning, work based placements and the chance to participate in cross country assignments.

Work Based Learning 

Work Based Learning provides an immersive experience for the learners where they can learn first-hand, by applying their knowledge and experience. The practical, hands-on industry experience benefits the students by enhancing knowledge and delivering first-hand experience of working in the creative sector, increasing opportunities for future employment and labour mobility.
 

Kathryn McGrane, a photography and film graduate from Northern Ireland, participated in the second round of the Digital and New Technologies pilot course in Belfast Metropolitan College. After completing four weeks of face to face learning sessions and additional online learning, she was ready to go out in the real world and apply the newly acquired knowledge. She had her Work Based Learning at Northern Ireland Opera for four weeks, and the experience was extremely positive for both sides. Kathryn had the chance to witness how Opera productions function backstage, and NI Opera gained an excellent young professional with an updated set of skills that responds to today’s sector needs. During her placement, Kathryn mostly documented rehearsals and performances through photography and recording. But the four weeks of the Live Skills placement was not the end of the collaboration between Kathryn and NI Opera, as she was commissioned to create the poster for one of their upcoming productions, The Enchantress .
 

It is stories like this that describe the essence of Live Skills project. Watch Kathryn share her thoughts about the program here !
 

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Cross Country Assignments

We are in our office in Brussels full of anticipation and excitement for what is about to happen – the first Live Skills Cross Country Assignment with learners and trainers in Belfast and Plovdiv. One classroom in Belfast Metropolitan College (BMC) with three learners and three tutors that brought together the learning material of Digital and New Technologies, and one classroom in Plovdiv School of Stage and Screen Arts with two learners and two tutors. All of them have already completed the theoretical part of the first pilot of Digital and New Technologies and are currently practicing their Work Based Learning.
 

The session begins with a true of false research exercise that provided a creative approach to cultural exchange. The second part of the session is led by BMC’s tutors. The task is set within the framework of a hypothetical music festival with participating artists from both countries, and the students are asked to consider the festival’s logo. This gives them the opportunity to use knowledge acquired in graphic design principles. The last part of the session is led by the tutors in Plovdiv, who have gathered different examples of international and local organisation logos, and invite the students in both cities to exchange ideas. It is remarkable how fast this online interaction has become vivid and fruitful, overcoming the boundaries of distance, language and culture. The first Live Skills Cross Country Assignment is successfully completed, leaving open windows for further discussions between the learners in the two cities.
 

“The exchanges were very fruitful with our Belfast peers, we had lots of fun and the content was excellent.”
Ivan Linkoff, Plovdiv School of Stage and Screen Arts
 

“This online exercise worked really well and our students in Belfast were very excited to participate and exchange with their fellow Live Skills learners from Plovdiv, Bulgaria!”
William Artt, Belfast Metropolitan College

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For Further Information

Email liveskills@britishcouncil.org

https://www.live-skills.eu/

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Belfast Met

Belfast Met (link is external) is the largest and longest established Further and Higher Education College in Northern Ireland. Founded in 1906, the college works at a strategic level to achieve its dual mandate of economic development and social inclusion. The College launched its  new Centre for Economic Development and Social Inclusion (CEDSI) in June 2018 which brings together a cross-College capability in supporting business development, graduate pre-employment programmes, community programmes and social enterprise, research and development for business and training solutions for the long-term unemployed and economically inactive and for young people not currently in education, training or employment.  The Live Skills Programme fits with the College’s wider programme of work to encourage and educate young people, parents, teachers and employers about the career pathways into the IT industry.

Follow @bfastmet on Twitter (link is external) or Instagram (link is external) and like Belfast Met on Facebook (link is external) for updated news and information. 

You might also be interested in:

• The BBC and Belfast Met: Make It Digital Course (blog) - discusses a short-term course run jointly by Belfast Met and the BBC that allows NEETs to develop skills and gain experience in the creative industry
• Employability programme for people with a learning disability at Belfast Metropolitan College (blog) - covers an education programme delivered by Belfast Met for learners with learning disabilities, giving them the opportunity to obtain permanent paid jobs acorss the Belfast Health Trust
• Adult Learning and Wellbeing Seminar at the Belfast Festival of Learning (blog) - this seminar examined the impact of adult learning on wellbeing and work through presentations delivered by speakers from the University of East Anglia, the Learning & Work Institute and Action Mental Health 
• NOW Group launches innovative catering academies (blog) - based in Belfast, NOW Group is a social enterprise that works to support people with learning difficulties and autism into with a future
• Upskilling Pathways - Health, Wellbeing and Learning in Northern Ireland (blog) - Colin Neilands recounts his experiences at the Health, Wellbeing and Learning in NI workshop at the EPALE UK and L&WI joint Upskilling Pathways Conference