Doctor Who star hails jobs boost for Angell Town kids
DOCTOR WHO star Pearl Mackie today praised an interactive careers fair for bringing new jobs and apprenticeships to the Angell Town community.
The Futures Festival was held on the Brixton estate and is the culmination of the Evening Standard’s award-winning £1.5 million The Estate We’re In campaign.
Organised by Spiral Skills CIC, it hosted more than 200 local young people and their parents, giving them hands-on careers experience.
Big names at the festival included HSBC, Berkeley Group, Canary Wharf Group and British Airways. They were joined by Brixton-born Mackie, who plays assistant Bill Potts in the BBC1 show, opposite Peter Capaldi as the Doctor. Both are leaving at Christmas. Mackie, 30, met Tallulah Kelley-Campbell and Amy Sturmer, both 13, who took part in a mock Doctor Who advertising campaign.
The actress said: “I’m from Brixton and there was nothing like this here for me when I was younger. I don’t remember anything like this in the community. We had youth projects but nothing that involves them in the same way.
“Young people need more things to do, especially in places like Angell Town. It’s important to show all kinds of careers from all walks of life. Many of them [the children] may never have thought about.”
Tallulah said: “I learned new things and found out what an account manager does, as well as the different roles in advertising. They asked me what I wanted to be and I said lawyer.”
Oshane Marsh, 12, who attends the Ebony Horse Club riding centre in Brixton, tried his hand at construction by building a cardboard replica of the Battersea Power Station.
He said: “I like making things and I think I’d like to be a builder, footballer or horse jockey. Today really helped my confidence.”
The event was funded by the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund in partnership with the London Community Foundation and the grassroots Big Local North Brixton.