MSP GLOBAL PARTNERS WITH HUGH BAIRD COLLEGE TO LIGHT PATHWAY TO CREATIVE FUTURES

Chamber members come together to close skills gap and broaden opportunities for local students

For many young people pondering their future careers, there can be a ‘light bulb moment’ where they suddenly realise what they want to do.

For a talented group of Media Production students at Hugh Baird College, that figurative moment has been quite literal as they get hands-on with lighting,

AV, production, photography and events technology as part of their work experience with technical production company MSP Global.

Headquartered in Bootle, MSP Global is a market leader in virtual, hybrid and live event production, working on behalf of clients across the UK and Internationally. Over the past 22 years, it has employed and trained hundreds of locally-based staff and now the firm is partnering with Hugh Baird College to help find the next generation of skilled technicians and creative minds.

This partnership was born out of their mutual connection as members of Liverpool Chamber and has now developed a number of key strands.

The most visible of these strands is the opportunity for dozens of Hugh Baird College students to get first-hand experience of working at the cutting-edge of digital production.

The first intake of students arrived last month and they have already been hard at work, learning the ropes from highly-experienced staff and looking for ways to showcase their own emerging talents.

Speaking from the firm’s head office in Bridle Road, 16-year-old Tasha explains: “I’m studying a Level 3 Media Production course, which is a two-year course incorporating topics such as photography, video editing and audio technology. My ambition is to be either a film director or work in forensics recording crime scenes, so I want to learn more about how to handle various pieces of technology and use it to create my vision or fulfil a specific purpose.”

Tom, also 16, dreams of becoming a commercial photographer: “Over the last few years, I’ve developed a passion for photography and I like to go to various locations such as the beach and shoot creative pieces with help from my friends. Hopefully my work experience with MSP Global will give me an opportunity to use different types of cameras in different settings and gain a clearer understanding of what it takes to be a commercial photographer, either as a freelancer or working for a company.”

David, a Hugh Baird College student from Kirkdale, hopes his experience with MSP Global will help his future career opportunities. He says: “I really enjoy editing and learning how to use different pieces of equipment. My end of year project is a music video using clips of famous computer games and I find it fascinating to watch professionals like MSP at work. Hopefully being here opens up doors for me later on and shows I can work in this type of environment.”

Joe, 16, comments that the opportunities being afforded to Hugh Baird College students are relatively rare: “I have friends taking similar courses at other colleges and none of them are being given opportunities like this. I believe this is quite a rare partnership so it’s great for us and other students at Hugh Baird College to be able to work alongside talented professionals and be mentored by them.”

Aside from providing work experience to students, MSP Global is working with Hugh Baird College in other ways, such as sponsoring the college’s recent event ‘Level Up: Education to Industry’. The marketplace style event aimed to encourage greater collaboration between industry and education providers and MSP also provided a range of lighting and other technical support on the day.

The Chamber is also delivering skillsfocussed work alongside the college as part of this growing relationship. Indeed, Hugh Baird College students have created the spread of photographs and artboard in the following pages, responding directly to a brief issued by the Chamber’s marketing team.

Explaining MSP Global‘s ambitions for the partnership, company director Lisa Richards says: “When Colin and I returned to the UK from South Africa and set up the business in 2000, we were very clear that we wanted to bring through a new group of highly-skilled, forward-thinking technicians. The business took off very quickly, so we were able to recruit and train a lot of people in a short space of time.

“The advantage of this approach is that we got to train young, local people ‘our way’, versing them in how we wanted things to be done, from the smallest detail such as how to coil a Cable, to senior client relations. Learning some of that nuance and balance can take many years, but the shape of the business allowed people to grow with us.

“Over this time, we have seen numerous staff develop a skill in one area, such as sound engineering, and then find an interest in another discipline, such as vision and graphic design. This creates multi-skilled individuals and teams who can work nimbly on live events to always find a solution and this is the blueprint we’d like to follow with students from Hugh Baird College.

“We want to help them identify and develop their passions without applying limits to their potential and encourage them to bring their own ideas to the table. As a business that is regularly talking to new or existing clients about upcoming projects, we want to remain ahead of the curve and always be creative in our approach, so the opportunity for fresh minds is always welcome.

“My first real contact with Hugh Baird College was through a Chamber online consultation event to discuss skills gaps in the region and after a few separate conversations we discovered that we could help each other in various ways. I would certainly encourage other Chamber members to explore opportunities for mutual benefit with fellow members and develop new partnerships.

Rachael Hennigan, Principal at Hugh Baird College, says the partnership is reaping rewards for the college and its students:

“The partnership with MSP Global allows our students to gain crucial high-quality industry experience from a market leader in the sector and will further equip them with the skills, knowledge and behaviours that the industry expects.”

“Our goal as a college is to ensure our curriculum reflects what is needed by businesses and, in turn, provides our students and community with the opportunities to thrive and be successful in a rewarding career. The connections that we make through the Chamber and our partnerships with employers such as MSP Global are helping us achieve this outcome.”