Helping local community organisations build their digital skills with Talent Works x Wix Playground
- Written byNicole Horgan
- Published date 01 November 2023
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At UAL it is important that we empower and support our students to gain experience and develop their confidence as they take their first steps towards their future careers. Better yet, we like to ensure that these experiences can also effect positive change across wider society too. Talent Works is a flagship London College of Communication (LCC) programme that provides second-year undergraduate students with paid work experience on a range of bespoke creative communications projects with local community groups, charities, and social enterprises. For this year’s iteration of the programme, Talent Works partnered with leading web development platform Wix.
Guided by designers and creative experts from the Wix Playground Academy team as well as LCC academics, 30 students from across LCC and Camberwell College of Arts took part in a two-week programme of talks, masterclasses, and collaborative work in a studio setting. The groups were given the ambitious task of designing and delivering websites for nine community groups and charities across the Southwark area, benefitting community interests such as Voices for Autism, London Unemployed Strategies and Panjshir Aid with free, bespoke creative services.
Working in interdisciplinary teams, students were able to contribute their individual talents to the project, ranging from UX design and branding to videography and photography. In week one, the students spent their time researching, developing and pitching their ideas to the clients, while the second week was spent executing their approved ideas on Wix editor and delivering the final websites. A showcase event at the end of the programme provided a lovely opportunity for everyone to take stock of the amount of hard work that took place in a short time-frame and to celebrate what had been achieved on behalf of the community organisations involved.
Taking part in the programme, the participating students were able to develop their technical, team working and project management skills. It also gave them a valuable opportunity to network amongst themselves and with industry mentors who offered insight and advice throughout the creative process. At the end of the programme, all of the students felt that it had helped them feel more confident in using their creative skills in a professional setting.
"The most valuable thing I took from the programme was being able to collaborate with a bunch of people from different disciplines across the university, across the community, and with business. Having two weeks to create a whole website was thrilling – I really enjoyed it because the end package was so valuable to the client…and it even inspired me to make my own website for my personal portfolio."
Norma Estrada, Journalism BA student
Wix proved to be an ideal industry partner, working together with LCC to shape and mould the programme and bring their expertise to the table. The programme also offered Wix as an organisation the opportunity to support the next generation of creatives and designers.
"I think these types of collaborations are essential… it allows students as they are learning to experience a little bit of that [professional] life. They benefit hugely because they get a glimpse into what's expected of them and it's beneficial to the industry because afterwards students then come much more prepared for whatever job it is they choose to do. I think this experience proved to be a huge success for everyone involved."
Shelly Peleg, Content lead for WIX Playground
Ultimately, the success of this programme rests on the fact that the positive impact goes beyond UAL’s walls and enabled community groups local to LCC, who would otherwise not have the resources, to get a newly designed, professional, bespoke website. At the end of the two weeks, all nine community groups involved agreed that their new student designed website would help their organisations increase their awareness, impact, and better serve their community.
"I’ve learnt so much along the way, from the questions asked in the initial survey to form the brief – it really made me think about my company from the user’s perspective - to the meetings and communication with the student team that showed me great ways to use web and digital design to support what my organisation aims to achieve."
Participating Community Group
Stay tuned for more details on the next Talent Works programme.