Switch Radio search for young journalists

Calling local youths to join the team

Malaka Chowdhury | Saturday 9th April 2022 3:35pm

An award-winning Bimingham radio station is providing young writers (18 and under) with the opportunity to build valuable experience and join their news team. 

Established in 2010, Switch Radio is Birmingham’s local community radio station, made in, for, and by Birmingham, keeping the community at the heart of our work. 
Winner of the Gold Entertainment Show of the Year at the 2021 National Community Radio Awards, as well as 3 Gold and 1 Bronze Award in 2020, Switch Radio boasts 20,000 listeners per week; 11,000 website visits per month and 32,000 social media impressions per month too. 

The modern news climate relies on multi-media to keep people informed, especially through online and social media channels. We want to give young writers the opportunity to research and contribute local news articles within this climate. 

This project will provide an insight into working within the media industry, a chance to develop time management, communication and news gathering skills, and guidance on developing your unique news writing style. Young people are at the heart of communities, and we want to champion your voice and value as part of the Vale community. 

Station Manager at Switch Radio, Dean Kavanagh said, “With the increased popularity of social media, getting reliable local news is becoming more and more important for healthy communities. 

As part of that, it’s important that young people are able to be involved in the generation of that news, and we’re hopeful that this project will give a range of young people experience in both news writing and collection.”

 “We’re looking for young people with a passion for writing and an interest in their local area. No formal experience is required, as we’ll work together to help ensure the writers have all the tools and skills that they need to be successful news writers!”.

Switch Radio also provides training courses for the young and unemployed, and are an accredited training centre for the delivery of media courses. We also run projects exploring homelessness, disability and youth crime, as well as a current collaboration with the Public Interest News Foundation to improve local engagement with the voting process. 

Please visit https://www.switchradio.co.uk/youngwriters for more information 

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