Curious Blog: Trail Finders

Rebecca Friel, Director of Odd Arts, looks back on an employer experience which paved the way to new ways of thinking...

Odd Arts was thrilled to have been accepted as one of the Trailblaze Employers in 2018. For anyone with little knowledge of this scheme, Trailblaze offers young people the opportunity to gain valuable part-time paid work experience, in a role that is tailored towards their needs and aspirations. The programme is jointly organised by Curious Minds and Manchester Metropolitan University.

This was a fantastic opportunity for Odd Arts too. For us, the ‘risk’ of a paid internship seemed lower, due to the specialist support guidance we would receive through the Trailblaze partnership, but also, we received a small contribution towards the hourly rate of our intern.

Values-based vision
Odd Arts always strives to adhere to its company values, not only in the way we work with ‘participants’ but also in the way we engage with the world more widely… staff, volunteers, partners etc. It was important to us that a part funded ‘work experience placement’ should not become opportunistic ‘cheap labour’! To ensure this isn’t the case, we asked ourselves:

• Can we achieve what is being asked of us?
• Does what we intend to provide sit within our own values system?

We had to be sure that what we were offering would provide a benefit to Odd Arts, but also the genuine career progression and ‘experience’ it should. To truly fit with our company values, this Trailblaze placement had to offer:

• Development
• Experience
• Increased employability
• Support
• Opportunities

Because we are a growing organisation, the offer of employment at the end of the placement was also always a real potential.

Success sometimes comes in unexpected forms
The placement we constructed was very hands on; focused on the intern gaining practical experience and techniques to facilitate creatively with the least heard groups. The role mainly supported workshop planning and preparation, giving an insight into to project management aspects behind the work.

Our vision of what success might look like was simple… Develop an individual to be a fulfilled and contributing member of the team, who might then continue long term employment within this role. This did not happen!