Outreach moves you up the career ladder

Beth Salmon is a researcher with BBC Outreach. She has analysed and mapped organisations and groups which bring the BBC closer to its harder to reach audiences in priority communities. She has worked on location at outreach events, and now prepares to join BBC Children in Need.

‘BBC Outreach experiences are definitely linked to me gaining my next role.’

I have been working with BBC Outreach as a researcher since October 2015 as part of the BBC’s Extend Scheme. Before I started with Outreach I had little knowledge of the BBC’s workings or what ‘Outreach’ actually meant. Five months later and it’s my last week in Birmingham – because my Outreach experiences have helped me gain a permanent job with Children in Need. I leave with so much valuable knowledge about how BBC Outreach and outreach principles connect BBC staff with varied and diverse audiences.

Two of my highlights in the last five months were when I worked at the Who Benefits? TV & Poverty conference which took place in Manchester in November 2015, and when the BBC Music Awards came to the NEC in December 2015.

Here’s a little more of what I have learnt along the way.

BBC Outreach unites audiences and staff

If you want to engage with the BBC or a particular BBC audience, then my colleagues at BBC Outreach should be your first port of call. The BBC Outreach team has insatiable passion and energy for producing high quality events which engage with some the UK’s hardest to reach audiences.

BBC Outreach is diversity and inclusivity

BBC Outreach embodies the BBC’s aim of being one BBC. Outreach works across the BBC’s departments, regions, and nations. Outreach’s work has highlighted to me the diversity and nationwide reach of the BBC. As a member of the Extend Scheme I have been included in the team with open arms and more than adequate understanding and adjustments. Outreach meets audiences and staff where they are at, helping to ensure that the BBC is accessible and engaging no matter what your circumstances.

BBC Outreach is new ideas, skills, and perspectives

As the one of the world's premier public broadcasting organisations with a vast and diverse audience, the BBC's constant challenge is to stay engaging and relevant. Outreach work generates new skills, perspectives and experiences within both audience and BBC staff populations. For example, I have learnt how to film with iPads, to engage young people in STEM careers, and to generate relationships with disparate grass roots organisations. I also now know about social media strategies and how to generate GIFs. BBC Outreach equips me (and the wider BBC) with an increased ability to engage and communicate with diverse, young, and technology-savvy audiences.

These skills and my BBC Outreach experiences are definitely linked to me gaining my next role with Children in Need - testament to the fact that Outreach is all about mutually-beneficial outcomes.

Volunteering, engaging with audiences, stepping out of your comfort zone can be challenging, but it’s also highly enjoyable. Outreach’s commitment to representing and engaging with all of the UK is a value which sets the BBC apart. I’m a bit biased, but I  would now recommend volunteering in communities to all my BBC colleagues because you will learn a lot and have fun in the process. 

BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community support and staff volunteering.