I write this blog having spent a considerable amount of time with Katie.  She came to the business when she was still at school for one week during her work experience as everyone secondary school does. She wanted to be a military photographer, something I admired her for doing. It’s not an easy job.

During that week I arranged for her to meet Sgt Rider at RAF Leeming. I could see it in her eyes at that point, the passion for the craft of photography, even then. When her exams were completed she approached us to maybe do lots of long term work experience, she told me she needed to have a placement for college and ultimately it would help her get into her chosen university.

Since then I’ve worked closely with Middlesbrough College, making sure she is covering subjects she needed for her college course and worked alongside their own work experience coach making sure we did the best for Katie and her course. We were asked to give her 300 hours of work experience, this would give her the relevant UCAS points helping with her university application. She did those hours only just, it was hard with the pandemic, but with each wedding, each day in the office we finally made it. Middlesbrough college had supplied a work experience booklet for her to keep up to date with her hours and it had full sections for me to complete, a record of Katie’s development.

As a business I had to accommodate the extra time to spend making sure Katie learnt about photography and the running business. We had to pay slight extra on the business insurance to make sure we had the cover for Katie whilst she was out and about with us. I didn’t mind any of that because she deserves effort to make sure she’s set on the right career path. When I was her age I wished I had someone to nurture my interests. Instead I floated for sometime career wise. 

At this point I’d like to skip three years forward to her 18th birthday where I was sat chatting to her friend who pointed out to me that he wished he’d had placement like Katie, he said he struggled to get his university place and it would have been easier with the experience.

Over the three years Katie has worked alongside me, she helped develop websites, done numerous weddings, portrait and commercial work. Experience that when she starts university in September, I’ll bet my bottom dollar no one else’s on her course will have. We have helped her out with hand me down equipment and whatever we could to make sure she completed her course and got her university place too.

I don’t think this is the end, she has expressed a wish to continue whilst at university let see what the future holds for her…………

She’s worked in an established business  gathering valued experience which I wish I had when I was her age.