On point: Umuzi Photo Club Academy is not only providing training in creative skills
Umuzi Photo Club Academy is challenging the status quo. Set up in 2014, the academy has a unique system that works to develop the next generation of creative professionals.
Through its one-year, accredited learnership programme, Umuzi offers free, high-quality creative education to young people from disadvantaged communities. A proven model, Umuzi runs in partnership with Investec Bank and The Creative Circle. In 2015 Investec won a Basa Award for Development for their work with Umuzi.
“There are so many young South Africans who don’t have the opportunity to tell their stories in the national narrative,” says Gilbert Pooley, managing director of Umuzi. “The reason for that is that creative education in this country is mostly privatised; you need to have R70 000 to go to one of the private colleges that are feeders into the advertising agencies. We work on changing this; all of our learners are from previously disadvantaged and under-resourced communities.”
Recruits are trained on-the-job in graphic design, copywriting, multimedia, and digital media and experience work placements at a leading advertising agency, media or production house. Through this, live projects, and interaction with industry leaders, over 80% of participants secure a job at a leading employer before they graduate.
The course developed organically through the “design thinking” model, the creative process Pooley says the recruits use to approach a brief: at its core is empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping and testing.
“All the recruits that come to us have a passion for creativity,” he says. “We don’t turn them into creatives, they come to us as creatives.
“We help them finesse that, and help with conceptual skills; for instance if they are graphic designers we give them the skills to become creative directors. We challenge them, and give them professional skills. We refer to them as recruits; they have managers who mentor them just as they would in a media house, and we even pay them a stipend.”
Verona Banda graduated from the Umuzi programme in 2015 and completed her work placement at Joe Public. During this time she worked on the Go Sandile campaign and was part of the team that won a Loerie Award for their outstanding work.
“The biggest lesson I learnt at Umuzi is you must always have a solution,” she says. “If you’re going to criticise something or someone, you must be able to present a solution that works for you, and be able to justify it. It’s a big lesson.”
When Dimpho Saal walked through the doors of Umuzi and was greeted with a massive graffiti mural she said it felt like coming home. She’d been in the death throes of a BComm, but always knew she’d rather be in the creative field.
“I was chasing a career that was mandatory,” she says. Now, she’s a recruit in the digital marketing department, working on content strategies. She’ll spend her internship at Flow Communications and hopes to be employed there when her placement is up. “What I’ve learnt is it’s important to build on your failures,” she says. “We can all grow.”
As a result of representing South Africa from a unique, yet prevalent point of view, Umuzi has been approached by agencies and clients asking to use the work of the academy’s creatives. As a result they’re launching a micro stock photography and digital video production service to create more work opportunities for the community. Additionally, agencies and clients in Cape Town have been asking for talent from Jo’burg, so they’re launching the Umuzi Academy in Cape Town to create more learnership opportunities and grow the community nationally in 2017. In response to industry needs, talent and production specialties will be added to the curriculum next year.
Pooley believes that current programmes focus too heavily on training for low-skill and low-value roles, such as administrators and call centre operators.
“The creative industry is particularly well placed to have an impact on youth unemployment,” says Pooley. “It is also less vulnerable to long-term competition from globalisation, automation, and artificial intelligence, unlike jobs in manufacturing and routine office work.
“We have created efficient programmes that empower people to be active economic participants in South Africa. More than that we make it possible to have a job with growth [opportunities] and real impact on the South African narrative.”