Students dial up skills in £183,000 radio project

With backing sourced via online funding resource www.grant-tracker.org and ultimately provided by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the three-year ‘My Radio’ project was designed to enhance students’ transferrable skills and so help improve their employability prospects.

Bangor Community Radio, in partnership with sister stations in Lisburn and Downpatrick, aims to improve the speaking, listening, and communication skills of 16-19 year olds, both in education and not in education, training or employment.

As part of the project the students produced a short radio recording on an issue that mattered to them, while also achieving a qualification.

They had the opportunity to practise on the radio, reading the weather, traffic and news and listening to guest speakers, and had to plan and deliver a one-minute speech about themselves.

SERC’s My Radio Project Manager and Community Radio Co-ordinator, Colm McAlinden, said, “I imagine that everyone was more than a little nervous when it came to the final recording – ‘one take’ only and a minute to fill with your voice in a radio studio show.

“Each and every student overcame their nerves and delivered their speech. That, to me, speaks volumes.”