In January 2022 BLP’s young people from their Dumfries and Castle Douglas project began a 6-week pilot digital development course with BattleStations.
BattleStations is a Lochmaben based organisation that provides bespoke digital experiences that aim to educate, entertain and communicate through gaming and digital technology. BLP and BattleStations came together to demonstrate the need for bridging courses for young people with additional and complex needs in digital content creation.
The course covered a variety of aspects of content creation such as streaming, videography, vlogging, and using YouTube. During the showcase an audience of BLP young people, their families, BLP’s team, and other stakeholders watched the videos created by the young people with the skills they learnt during the course and a certificate presentation. The work created included live streams using open broadcast software and video montages, which the young people produced untampered by outside influence. BLP’s young people were given the opportunity to make use of industry-level tools and took charge of their own scripting, audio editing, and colour correction.
About the project Derry Rogerson, C.E.O of BattleStations and leader of the pilot course, said: “All BLP’s young people did exceptionally well, and each came away with having learnt something new. Its great that now they can go and use the skills they have learnt over the course.
“The partnership between BattleStations and BLP has shown that digital skills are transferable skills. We have been able to identify their interests and passion, and adapt and shape a course that they have enjoyed and excelled at.”
The course came about after conversations with the young people over the lockdowns and their desire to share with each other live streams of their own gaming as a way to stay connected over the pandemic.
Jonny, one of BLP’s young people who attended the course, said: “What I enjoyed about learning at BattleStations was that it was different. I learnt about live streaming and recording footage.
The best part was that we got to perform in a live stream. We got to do whatever we wanted to make our own videos!”
The young people thoroughly enjoyed this course and often came back from their days in Lochmaben with plenty to tell the team. Anne McEwan, BLP Project Co-ordinator, who met with BattleStations’ Derry Rogerson to discuss the need of our young people during the concept stages of the project said: “We hope to find a way to move this project forward and continue to offer this course across our sites.
There are a number of young people who attend our Stranraer project who missed out on the Lochmaben course that would love a chance to take part. The young people really enjoyed this course, and we would like to thank Derry BattleStations for working with us on the project, it has been a great opportunity for all who took part.
Better Lives Partnership is delighted by the success of the project and the showcase and videos created by the young people were thoroughly enjoyed by all.
