What started as an idea from our Managing Director Laura just a few years ago, has now become a very exciting reality. Nurtured and driven by our newly recruited Talent Manager Aimee, TCC have carefully curated a 6 month programme for 10 budding creatives who are embarking on a career as a media freelancer – TCC Rising Talent.

Throughout late 2021 and earlier this year, Laura and Aimee were attending events including The Broadcast Tech Fest, Be You Festival | Soho Media Club and The Cost of Living Crisis for freelancers | Percy & Warren, where the same topics kept cropping up; how do we recruit people as tech and innovation evolves, and how can we not only recruit a more diverse workforce but train and support them as they enter the industry. Coming away disheartened but inspired, as an agency that sits right in the middle of freelance talent seeking work, and clients in need of tackling these issues, we knew we had a responsibility to act. So we got our heads together and decided to pull our resources!

Knowing that we wanted to help support inclusion in the industry and make productions more reflective of the society we live in, we set out to build a programme that could be an advocate for change. Collaboratively as a company, our mission was to ensure the programme would not only provide support and guidance for talent navigating their way into freelance roles, but help Production Companies, Creative Agencies and Organisations recruit more consciously. With capacity for 10 spaces in our pilot run, we reached out to Mama Youth Project, Media Trust, Ravensbourne University, Westminster University and University for the Creative Arts to open applications out to their graduates, as they all expressed a shared interest in tackling this skills gap and diversity crisis. We also reached out to our regular clients to gain their thoughts on this initiative, who expressed excitement at the prospect of having this pool of talent to pull from, and assured us that these more junior levels are very much needed, which affirmed our decision to run Rising Talent and spurred us on even more!

We were overwhelmed with the ambition and passion that leapt off the application pages, humbled that our new build programme had attracted so much talent. We ensured our processes were accessible, fair and that applications were reviewed by a team that represented us fully as a company, and after much deliberation our 10 Rising Talent were selected (click here, to check their profiles).

Having just on boarded everyone in August, we are proud to say that two of our Rising Talents have already been booked on jobs in their chosen field with our clients; Smyle and Fifty Fifty Post Production. The first sessions with their Mentors are well underway and we have our completed our first couple of workshops. We are truly excited about this venture and are hoping we will return bigger and better with our next programme in 2023!

Meet the Class of 2022

This is what our Talent Manager Aimee had to say “After 10 years working in the TV industry, I came to The Crewing Company excited that I had a platform to share the tricks of the trade and guide our freelancers through their careers. My goal from a young age was to be able to stand up in schools and Universities to talk openly about going into a career as a freelancer in the media industry; and the fact that I have been able to run a programme like Rising Talent that feels revolutionary for recruitment agencies, is a dream come true.”

Our Managing Director, Laura said ‘As a specialist recruitment agency, we have a responsibility to make sure we are understanding what is happening out there in the industry for freelancers and clients alike. We have taken part in numerous talks in the past to universities and training programmes to give aspiring talent an idea of what it takes to become a successful freelancer, but it always felt anti-climactic to tell these budding students at the end ‘see you in 2 to 5 years when you have gained some experience’. We realised we can be part of that transitional process, and nurture them along the way too. We heard too many stories of people leaving the industry due to lack of support, and we are so delighted that we have found a way to bridge this gap. Freelancing truly is a viable option, and we feel with the right guidance and support, it can be a real success! We are so excited to see how we can kick-start our Rising Talent careers in the industry, whilst also helping clients fill the skills gap they have been experiencing!’

Find out more about the programme from the Rising Talnet Page on our website.