Student Village and Business Day TV (BDtv) have joined forces to create Career Connect, a conversational show that hosts discussions between industry experts and students to determine ways in which the aspirant graduates can best position themselves for employment after school. The show is aimed at creating dialogue between SA youth and employers to learn from one another and to better equip young career starters.
Student Village produces the show from its head office in Houghton and BDtv is involved in the visual production and broadcasting.
The show offers advice on various related topics, from how to make your résumé stand out to what recruiters look for, to how to narrow the Afrillennial (African millennial) skills gap in the workplace, explains Samantha Van Zyl from Student Village, content creation manager of the show.
Van Zyl says one of her biggest challenges has been condensing information on broader topics to fit into a single episode. “The youth are hungry for more information, on topics like job interviews or internships, than can fit in an episode but what makes this challenge great is that it makes the programming evergreen. We can cover several angles on a certain direction we’ve taken and have content emerging from that for the future.”
Outside of content it was a big challenge for the company to take on filming their very first TV programme. “The whole process has been new to us and we’ve learnt so much already,” says Van Zyl. They film once a month where the studio is set up in the boardroom which is transformed for two days.
“We want to showcase career and advancement opportunities on the show, as more businesses join our conversation and keep growing a positive narrative in the youth media space with regards to providing helpful and constructive content that can actually help our viewers.”
They are currently shooting on a three camera interview setup with the purpose of getting shots from three different angles, explains Mogomotsi Diale, DOP at Student Village. “Two Panasonic broadcast cameras that are supplied by BDtv and our own Canon 5D Mark 3 DSLR.”
They are using one LED light since they already have lighting within the room they shoot in, describes Diale, who says they use three lapel mics to the two broadcast cameras, one for the main camera that’s focused on the presenter and the other two mics run through to the second camera, which is focused on the guests.
In post-production edit in Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop CS6 and Final Cut Pro 10 (FCPX). “The reason for using two different suites is because we have a freelancer that we are working with on the show who is familiar with FCPX and Adobe is used for both editing and designing of graphic features that are incorporated in the show,” explains Diale.
“Student Village has spent the past 15 years being the trusted expert to both employers and students. We are excited to partner with BDtv to assist young people to navigate their future options and to become work ready,” says Ronen Aires, Career Connect host and CEO of Student Village. BDtv has identified Career Connect as a niche opportunity to roll out the show as part of its newly launched weekend content.
“The synergy between what we wanted to create and Student Village’s ability to connect brands and youth in the workplace enabled us to bring this vision to life,” says Semeyi Zake, head of programming at BDtv. “It couldn’t have come at a more critical time as our country’s youth are in desperate need of a platform that can offer them guidance and context in terms of getting the best head start.”
Career Connect airs on Business Day TV’s weekend platform SME Zone on DStv channel 412 on the weekend.
It seeks to empower youth for the job market, Zake adds “this partnership allows us to expose students and graduates to the world of entrepreneurship, which in itself is an alternative career path.”
