#GrabTheMIC Client Journey Interview

In this #GrabTheMIC client journey we speak to Ezra Rushen. He’s the Director of Production at Digital Advantage. They’re a not-for-profit digital school. We were commissioned by the charity to design a podcasting course for young people. We also trained a bunch of their interns to create a podcast about neurodiversity in the workplace!

We start by asking Ezra what he loves about MIC…

What MIC has been able to do is bring the medium of podcasting to our young people at Digital Advantage. It fits really well with what we’re trying to achieve in building digital programmes. They give them technical and digital skills, but they’re also about helping young people to tell their stories. So for example our “Digital News Agency” (DNA Programme), is where we help a class or school to become an agency to tell stories for that school. Podcasting is perfect for this.

“MIC media’s podcasting course is without a doubt the best training videos we’ve put together to deliver to our young people.”

Why do you get out of bed every morning?

Our mission is to help young people build their digital skills and to use them in a meaningful way that can work in real practice. We want this to be a ‘workplace’ experience for young people, as opposed to a school one. That’s what drives us; getting the future workforce educated around digital, media and creative industries, to be technically literate and able to tell stories.

Another of our programmes is our “Pop-Up Agency”. We go into schools to give their students work experience. We bring in a skilled trainer who works with them in their own digital agency. We also have a commitment to helping young people with special educational needs into industry too. You can see that in action through our “Digital Inc Agency” programme. It’s where we set up 15 interns with special educational needs, predominantly autism and make them “industry-ready”.

Why did you get MIC involved?

I was putting together a programme to teach young people a variety of digital skills so that they can tell their stories. I wanted podcasting to be a part of it, but we didn’t have that skill set in-house.

Tell us about the programme…

The resulting programme Digital Advantage Online, comprises expert-led, interactive video courses for a digital skill – we’ve got branding, website design, video, photography and social media. MIC media has done our podcasting one. Each course is made up of a number of different modules. Our trainers can then deliver these courses remotely or in person in schools across the UK.

We’ve always talked about taking our training further than the North West of England, but we’ve always been limited geographically because of where our trainers are based. Then covid came along and forced us to finally invest the time and energy to take this stuff online. We can now reach young people and schools nationwide.

Are there any criteria you look for when you choose a trainer?

We look for people who have lots of in-depth industry experience and that are able to break this down into bite-sized chunks and language that young people can understand and can communicate well with. MIC media is really good at doing this. Your videos on the podcasting course are so engaging, not just because of the knowledge that you’ve got, but your presentation style. The feedback from our trainers and young people about your videos have been fantastic. Your podcasting course has set the bar a little higher for us now.

MIC media are really good at communicating with young people.

What’s been the impact of the podcasting course?

We delivered it to a group of 10 young people with autism over five days. They decided that their podcast was going to be about volunteering. We used the videos and materials that MIC designed, to help us produce the podcast. In just 5 days we had the first episode produced, recorded, edited, and on Spotify! We also created a logo and artwork that the group used on their social media too.

There was a wealth of media and storytelling taking place and importantly, it was their own stories. It was really compelling and moving to hear the young people talk about the challenges they have in life and how volunteering has helped them to improve their mental health.

We’ve even had emails from the participants saying ‘We loved the podcast course, when can we do it again?’

The podcast project was also featured on BBC Radio Merseyside and in an article in the Liverpool Echo! We’re going back to make a second episode with them too. They’re really excited and I’m chuffed to bits with the project. All of our sponsors are delighted with the way it went too. So it was a huge success.

Compared to video, do you find it’s easier to get kids to work on a podcast?

One of the issues that we have, particularly around special education, is that young people don’t want their faces on video, but they’re more likely to talk. So podcasts offer an opportunity to capture stories in a way that video simply does not.

At the moment MIC media’s podcasting course is my go-to, flagship workshop for gathering stories about what’s going on in your school.

The other thing about audio is that the listener has the opportunity to listen anywhere. If you’re doing your washing up, drive your car or walk the dog whilst listening. Whereas with video, you can’t do that. So it’s a much more accessible medium for the end user as well. Plus, editing audio is also a speedier process than video!

The great thing is that young people can watch the How To Podcast videos and learn at their own pace and in their own time. That was massive for us. It gave us huge flexibility so they could be getting on with other projects.

Tell us how your interns are using the podcasting course…

We set the challenge for our digital interns to create their own podcast and for their community. They chose the name, ‘Outside of The Box’ which for them represented that as a young group of people, predominantly with autism, they naturally found that they think ‘outside the box’.

They worked their way through MIC’s video modules, then at the end of three weeks they had produced their first episode and distributed through the different podcast platforms. They did a social media campaign around it too and it was very well received!

What was it like working with MIC to create this Podcasting course?

You made it really easy for me because I knew nothing about podcasting and also a fun experience for me too! You also provided lots of materials to make it a really rich visual presentation for the young people doing the course. It’s worked brilliantly, I’ve had absolutely no-one come back and go, ‘oh, I don’t really understand what’s going on here’.

It’s been a real pleasure to work with MIC media. It’s been really profound actually and I don’t normally have to look hard for the teary moments, but everything that I’ve done so far with MIC’s podcast training has turned up some of the greatest surprises.

I’ve seen a lot of young people feel very pleased with themselves in the podcast work they’ve produced. You should be really, really proud of yourselves. Great work!

Take a look at the Digital Advantage Client Journey digest

Are you looking for podcast training for your beneficiaries, members, team or group? Contact MIC HERE, let’s have a chat about your workshops wants and ideas!