BBC
doubles its intake of engineering & technoloy graduates
The BBC has announced that it is doubling the number of places available
on its engineering & technology graduate trainee scheme, despite
the falling numbers of science, engineering and technology (SET)
graduates in the UK.
The
expansion of the scheme is in response to the rapid growth and diversification
of the media industry.
As
a result, the BBC - which is about to start its annual university
milk-round - is looking for over 70 graduates to join the engineering
& technology trainee programme next year.
It
will be aiming to attract a diversity of people to become BBC engineers,
including more women and more graduates with arts backgrounds, as
well as SET graduates.
Jenny
Abramsky, the BBC's director of Radio & Music says: "Although
the number of graduates with engineering and technology degrees
is falling, the demand for people with those skills - particularly
in the media industry - is greater than ever before,"
"But
engineering isn't just for people with science or technology qualifications;
some of our best Radio & Music broadcast engineers were designers,
painters, linguists, philosophers or mathematicians before they
came to the BBC."
Greg
Dyke, Director-General of the BBC, says: "When people think
of the BBC they tend to think of programme makers and journalists.
But
the people we employ who work at the cutting edge of technology
are equally important, and that's why we invest so much in their
training and development."
Those
who are accepted for the two to four-year development scheme will
receive a mix of expert training, led by some of the media-world's
leading authorities, plus practical hands-on experience. This will
include working on many of the BBC's flagship programmes and initiatives.
"The
BBC is an organisation that changes and develops all the time; always
with the aim of better reflecting its audiences' tastes, their interests
and their diversity - not just in programme content, but in the
people it employs," continues Jenny Abramsky. "Our training
is the best in the world, and we want to attract the best to join
us."
Although
the BBC concedes that the lack of women in engineering & technology
is still an issue, it has always actively sought to attract more
women to these roles and continues to emphasise these aims.
It
has also always championed better arrangements for working women
over many years.
For
example it was one of the first employers to pay mothers throughout
their maternity leave, introduced family-friendly policies before
being required to do so by UK/EU legislation, as well as workplace
nurseries at some major locations.
Richard
Lace and David Hadden - two graduates who joined the scheme last
year - are spear-heading the Graduates for Technology recruitment
tours which are taking place at colleges and universities around
the UK throughout October and November.
If
you are currently at university and would like to find out more
about the BBC engineering & technology trainee scheme or your
nearest venue for the BBC graduate recruitment tour, contact BBC
recruitment on 0870 333 1330, quoting reference 57266, or click
onto bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/jobs/gradrecruit,
or email gradrecruit@bbc.co.uk.
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