At half-time on Saturday, Millwall Community Trust signed a formal agreement with Lewisham College to establish a media college here at The Den.
We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Asfa Sohail (Principal of Lewisham College), Adu Antwi and Jayne Morgan – Lewisham College to today’s match and hope they have an enjoyable day.
This is the culmination of many months of discussion in which a unique opportunity is being offered to local young people looking to build a career in the media.
With effect from this month, Lewisham College will offer study programmes for young learners in Creative Media Production and Technology (including media, marketing, journalism and public relations). These programmes are designed to provide students with the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary to access and progress to degree level study or employment in the media sector.
The experience we offer will enable students to react positively and creatively across a diverse range of assignments and creative activities. Projects will be devised that enable students to demonstrate their independent capacity to self-initiate, research, analyse, organise, reflect and evaluate. Students will gain an understanding of the football business and media by introducing football business models and management concepts, business planning, contemporary issues and public relations events strategy. There will be opportunities to develop a practical application of how football brands communicate to their audiences through PR-related activity.
As part of this new partnership, the students will be given access to the club’s range of media facilities and be able to see and support interviews with club personnel, staff, players and others. They will be able to see first-hand how interviews are conducted in the club’s media suite, at the training ground and on the TV and press gantry. Where possible, work experience placements will be arranged with the club’s key partners including Sky Sports, BT Sport, Radio 5 Live, TalkSPORT, BBC Radio London as well as our own Millwall TV and Millwall radio.
Students will also get the opportunity to work on commercial media for sponsors and advertisers, with specialist partners such as Kick it Out, Show Racism the Red Card and Mind UK and on video productions relating to players, sports science analysis, the youth academy and the community trust. Students will also get to work on the matchday programme and media support around the first-team, Under 23s, Under 18s, youth academy, women’s and girls’ teams and the LGBTQI teams and the social media channels of both the football club and the community trust.
We aim to bring senior figures from all our partner organisations to work with the students and provide them with important insights into how the media works in order to supplement their teachings from industry professionals and experienced media academics.
Once the redevelopment of The Den commences, the plan is very much to expand the range of courses on offer to local young people. Having students at the stadium throughout the week will bring the site to life on non-match days and provide an environment that local people can be proud of.
“The establishment of a media college at The Den will further strengthen our community links and provide a unique educational offer for local young people,” Lions CEO Steve Kavanagh said. “The students will be able to witness first-hand how the media related operations of the club and trust work and it will provide them with a unique insight and practical experience of every aspect of the club’s and trust’s media output.”
