Bespoke workshop equips City & Guilds with skills to create engaging video content

HAMMERSMITH, U.K. - April 7, 2014 - PRLog -- Video Arts has run a bespoke workshop on the principles and practicalities of video production to enable the digital learning resources team at City & Guilds to plan and produce engaging video content.

The one-day workshop was delivered for the eight project and production managers who develop the support resources for City & Guilds’ technical qualifications and its new TechBac® programmes for the 14-18 year old market, which cover vocational and academic learning as well as the core skills needed for the workplace.

“Our support resources have traditionally included textbooks and downloadable tutor and learner materials,” said Hannah Cooper, Content Development Manager at City & Guilds. “However learning technologies are playing a bigger role in how people are learning new skills and video content is certainly part of this. There’s now a much greater demand for video content from vocational learners who want to see for themselves how the theories they’re taught can be applied in practice. We realised we could be more effective in producing video content to support the learning objectives in our qualifications, so we asked Video Arts for help as they’re experts in this field and we’ve worked with them previously to create bespoke video films.”

Designed and delivered by Colin Burgess, head of content at Video Arts, the workshop covered all aspects of video production from planning, to scripting, filming and post production. It highlighted the roles and responsibilities within a production team and the suitability of different video styles for different audiences. It also included tips on storyboarding, camera angles, lighting, sound and editing as well as practical exercises to reinforce the learning.

“Our team gained the skills and confidence to successfully plan and produce high quality video productions that are fit for purpose,” said Hannah Cooper. “We all agreed that the workshop was interesting, relevant and valuable. The content was tailored to our specific needs, the learning points were very tangible and each person came away with a practical toolkit of templates and guidelines. We also learned how to be creative and flexible when faced with challenging budget or time restrictions. The workshop was very well facilitated and the balance of theory and discussion, backed up with examples and humour, made it highly engaging.”

City & Guilds will produce different styles of video to support its range of vocational qualifications. It has already created short character-based videos for its TechBac^® programmes, showing young people demonstrating key competencies, skills and attributes in the workplace.

“We’ll be developing much more video content in the future, including traditional training films, ‘how to’ videos and animations,” said Hannah Cooper. “This workshop has given us practical tips and insights that will help us to ensure that we’re producing the right video solutions for the right audiences every time and that those videos are really engaging. Ultimately, the learning points will also make us more efficient in how we manage our resources and our budgets.”

For further information, please contact Video Arts via www.videoarts.com or call +44 (0) 20 7400 4800.

Background notes: Video Arts is the world’s leading provider of ready-made and bespoke video-based learning.

City & Guilds (www.cityandguilds.com) is a global leader in skills development. Its TechBac® qualification was originally developed in 1991 and has been re-designed to deliver a robust and high-quality vocational alternative at Levels 2 and 3 to the traditional GCSE and A-Level routes. Available for study nationwide from September 2014, it will provide young people with a balance of technical knowledge and the core competencies and skills required by employers. For more information, please call Wendy Anstead (PR contact) on 020-7294 8076 or email her at press@cityandguilds.com