Broadcast Operator Review

On the day to day, we have hands on experience within a live news environment such as camera operations, sound operations and hub ingest. We also have the chance to do events such as children in need. This enables to gain valuable experience within a live gallery environment with appropriate responsibility given to you.

I have learnt I wide variety of new skills. This not only includes the practical skills within a live environment such as camera ops, sounds ops, media ingest, VSAT ops, editing, graphics and much more but personal development skills such as working in a team, communication, problem solving and workflow management.

I enjoy this programme a lot. To get hands on experience on a real live environment is so valuable, this isn't an experience I would've got if I simply went to University. It also has given me a foot in an industry which I've wanted to get into for most of my life.

It is quite well structured. On the BBC side we have a clear timetable given to us with placement blocks telling us what department were meant to be working under. However on the college side under Firebrand we've had some issues with organisation but BBC have supported us through this

In both local and nationwide we have plenty of support. In our placements we have a dedicated placement manager who oversees our placement make sure we're getting along fine and gelling well with the team. On a nationwide scale the head of apprenticeship always check in with us to make sure everything is going well at the placement

Originally the support from firebrand was minimal, I don't know if they fully understood our roles within the bbc. After communication with Firebrand and BBC we have worked towards fixing these issues we have much more regular meetings and have a consistent approach to the support given to us to complete the apprenticeship

Not at all. The qualification and the job roles are completely different. The qualification is an IT focused qualification while the role is very media based with next to no actual IT exposure. This has been brought up to both BBC and Firebrand and Firebrand have made some steps to change their approach but unfortunately there's only so much that can be done

There are very minimal extra curricular activities that are available, to my knowledge at least. There are opportunities to go to events of behalf of the BBC such as Children in need and what I did was Teen Tech which was good but on a sport and social side unless I missing something there seems to be minimal

Yes

The BBC is a fantastic place to work. I genuinely look forward to work every day, you get hands on within a live environment which is respected around the world for its high quality which only pushes you both personally and professionally. It's dynamic and fast paced meaning two days won't be the same

Make sure you know what roles you're applying for and a fair bit of research into the skills needed for that role. It's also important to just be yourself throughout the multiple interview stages and just try to present the best version of yourself at all times. Good luck