The Digital Media and Creative Industries (DMCI) project will support 27 VET learners from two of Capacity London’s VET qualifications. • Certificates in Social Media and Digital Marketing (Level 3) • Award in Professional Practice for the Creative Industries (Level 3) The Digital Media sector is a fast moving sector undergoing constant change as new ‘disruptive’ technologies; new applications and methodologies continuously push the boundaries of what is possible. Individuals need to be practising their trade and continuously developing. The Creative Industries are a difficult sector within which to establish a career, as the early stages of the career are characterized by very low pay which can push people out of the sector or discourage them from entering it all together. For both sectors the opportunity to undertake a professional placement will make it easier to establish a career in their chosen sector. Through the provision of European work placements the DMCI project will provide a valuable and essential bridge for participants from their vocational training course to overcome these barriers in their chosen sector, increasing their chances of success in the labour market in the UK and across Europe. To that end the specific objectives of the DMCI project are: • To support the aspirations of VET learners by providing them with work experience within employers that will develop their newly learned skills • To assist VET learners in moving into employment in the Digital Media or Creative Industries sectors, in the UK or across Europe • To enable participants to develop the linguistic and cultural skills required to access employment in other countries within the European labour market In total this project will provide mobilities for 27 participants across the two sectors. The profile of the participants from the digital media sector and the creative industries sector vary. Participants entering the DMCI through Capacity London’s Digital Media vocational qualification will be from one of two distinct groups with diverse backgrounds. The first group are young people who are taking a more traditional vocational training route, rather than entering higher education, and that have limited work experience. The second group will be those who are undertaking vocational training to update or expand their range of skills of those that are seeking a career change. Participants entering the DMCI project through Capacity London’s Professional Practice for the Creative Industries will be those people with creative craft skills who want to develop their employability, professional practice and business skills. These individuals need to gain experience in the industry side of their filed in order to learn to apply their skills to generate an income. Participants will undertake a mobility placement with a dynamic host employer in another European country. Through observing people in a small and successful creative business the participants will be able to observe successful working practices and utilise these skills for their own professional benefit. This will allow them to gain much needed professional knowledge and application of their skills along with gaining greater confidence in their abilities and increased awareness of where there chosen career can take them. The DMCI project will provide two different lengths of mobilities, reflecting the different needs and situations of the potential participants. Learners with limited work experience who will benefit from additional time to develop workplace and interpersonal skills will be able to access 3 months mobilities that will provide an extended period of work experience. We are aware from previous mobility projects that a 3-month duration will allow sufficient time for participants to develop and apply a wide range of skills, enabling them to feel settled in their work and to practice and become confident in the new skills they learn. Learners with more experience of in the labour market who require less time and support in developing workplace skills and professional confidence will be able to access 2-month mobilities providing experience in a vocational area specifically relevant to their professional development objectives. Furthermore, our experience of previous mobility projects indicates that these learners are typically less likely to be able to participate in longer-term mobilities due to family or financial commitments and thus the 2-month duration may be more suited to their personal situations. Learning Outcomes for the participants will be focussed around three key themes: (1) General employability learning outcomes (2) Linguistic and cultural learning outcomes (3) Vocation specific learning outcomes (digital media or creative industries) Participants will attain a number of benefits from the project, including an increase in employability skills, professional skills associated with their vocation, linguistic and cultural skills.