This isn’t training..... This is Fast Train training (said in obligatory sexy M&S advert voice)

TV and radio training, it’s so expensive, isn’t it?  Just glancing at some of the courses I’d love to do on the BBC Academy website reveals prices of about £750 for a Radio features course.  On the Creative  Skillset website there is a Cannon XF305 camera course for just under £500. All a bit expensive for a freelancer just starting out with no money to his name.

Guess I’ll have continue without any extra training and just hope I get employed, at some point, by someone who is willing to foot the cost......right?

Well, no. You see there are these wonderful events, a few each year, called Fast Train. The BBC, Creative Skillset (the main industry body for training and funding), ITV and others work together to deliver a day of workshops and lectures for freelancers and it’s all free. Yep, completely and utterly free.    

How could I resist such an opportunity?

I eagerly selected the workshops I wanted. Not an easy task, I have the same problem in restaurants when trying to pick between three delicious sounding options on the menu, I just want them all. My choice was helped by the fact that some workshops had already sold out (note to self, book earlier next time) and I made my selection. I worked out I could fit in four workshops and the networking drinks at the end (very important that.... I’d barely left a gap in my schedule for lunch, and the food  and drink would be much needed by that point, and of course the chance to mingle with others in my industry is always worthwhile).

So on Tuesday morning I set off to Salford’s MediaCity. After last week’s Greater Manchester Road debacle (see “Foot in the door” blog from earlier this week) I was leaving no chances and left my house insanely early, arriving at my destination a good two and a half hours before my first  workshop.

But this at least gave me time to grab a coffee, say hello to Simon Wright (one of the people who run the BBC Production Talent Pool I am on), and take a quick jaunt in time and space.

Not only did I get to meet the TARDIS (yes ”meet”, it’s sentient you know) but before my first workshop I even won a raffle. My Prize? A Golden Ticket awarding me a £1500 training bursary through Creative Skillset. My day was off to an amazing start.

I went to my first workshop with a smile on my face and a coffee in my hand.

Now, obviously, you’re never going to learn as much on a 2 hour workshop as you would do on a full two day course, but you can get enough that you come away feeling you have learnt stuff you hadn’t known before.

My first workshop was an introduction to Pro-Tools, the industry standard audio editing package. For audio editing, I have always used Adobe Audition in the past but knowing that so much of the industry used Pro-Tools I have wanted to learn how to use it for a long time. unfortunately it tends to be another of those expensive courses.  So this was a workshop I jumped at the second I saw it. It was a chance to learn the basic tools in the programme so that if I was plonked at a desk in a job and told to edit something with it, I wouldn’t make a fool out of myself. 

Next, onto “Social Media and Second Screens”.  As well as professional interest here, I also had a hobbyist interest as I run the Twitter account of a local amateur theatre society and help with the Twitter account of my town’s volunteer-run theatre. Some good advice was imparted on finding your audience where they already are not trying to get them to come to your preferred platform.

Leaving me even less time to eat in my short lunch, I squeezed in doing a presenting screen test for the BBC academy. Who knows, one day it may be me introducing that clip of Anthea Turner getting her hair cooked extra crispy on the BBC health and safety training videos. 

In a Pitching workshop, one task we had to do was each read out a section of JFK’s presidential inaugural address. Being the eager amateur actor that I am, I did it in full American accent. No one else did.

Finally, I attended “Working with Radio Indies” which confirmed much of the advice I had gotten from indie people at last week’s Foot In The Door event, mainly that they want ideas and the best thing to do is just pitch them some. So I’ll be working on some ideas later today to send along to the helpful and friendly guys I met running this workshop.

.. I’m really pleased I went along to this event and I’m certainly eagerly awaiting the next one. In the meantime, I’m going to get shopping for a course on the Creative Skillsset website to spend my Golden ticket on.