Having only worked in part-time jobs, Joseph Marshall hoped to get his foot in the door in the media and was looking for work experience opportunities when he discovered apprenticeships. He successfully applied for an apprenticeship in Post-Production with the BBC, describing his chance at starting his career via the scheme as “a once in a lifetime opportunity”.
Over a year combining his role with studying for the level 3 qualification, Joseph shadowed and aided Edit Assistants, soon performing “vital tasks such as editing web-clips, delivering tapes to broadcasting houses, transcoding and renaming rushes for editors and so much more.”
While Joseph mainly worked at the Roath Lock drama studio on primetime BBC drama Casualty developing his skillset, he was also given the chance to work on Doctor Who and on factual programmes being produced from Broadcasting House in Llandaff, Cardiff. As the twelve months of the scheme came to an end, Joseph was offered a three-month contract as an Edit Assistant with the BBC.
At the end of his contract, Joseph, like many of the post-production workforce, decided to take the step into freelancing. The contacts he made and relationships developed during his apprenticeship proved invaluable as he started his freelance career, and he later returned to Casualty to work on the content for the programme’s social media platforms.
While he aims to develop his career via both post-production in television and social media, Joseph recognises the vital part the apprenticeship played in opening the door to working in the creative industries, and also in how he has developed as a person.
Joseph said:
Without the apprentice scheme I would not be where I am. I haven’t just grown in my career but also my personal life. Before I was an apprentice for the BBC, I was very shy. This apprenticeship really helped with how I communicate with people. Every single member on the Sgil Cymru team were amazing and guided me through the apprenticeship.
If, like Joseph, you are interested getting into the media via an apprenticeship route, click here for more information.