14.03.21

Final Call: A-Team Mentoring Programme by The Arena

It's the final few days to get your entries in to The A-Team Mentoring Programme by our lovely friends at The Arena. Not only that, but our own Jamies McLearie is part of the line-up, offering young creatives one-on-one advice, to point you in the right direction and to lend an ear.

"The A-Team are a collective of mentors ready to listen, guide and empower the next wave of creative talent. Each successful applicant will be partnered with a mentor from the team, for a 30min video call via Google Meet, between 1st & 11th April. After your intro call, it’s totally up to you whether you maintain an ongoing relationship with your mentor", says Dom, Ben & Lauren, founders of The Arena.

So far there's a stellar list of 24 mentors to be paired with, across every facet and experience-level the creative industry has to offer; from motion design to photography, graphic design to UX & UI, there's someone to help – whether you're out of university and looking for work, thinking of sidestepping into a new career, or even at secondary school tempted to make those very first steps.

At the back end of last year, The Arena interviewed our own James McLearie on the importance of external help. "A very simple idea, but one that I feel isn’t talked about enough is the ability to ask for support or help when you need it. This could be at work when you’re unsure about the best way to go about a technical task or not understanding a new brief the first time around. It's always quicker and easier to learn from someone else than trying to figure it out yourself (which is often the long way round).

It could be when hunting for a job, asking for help from a more senior designer in getting your portfolio up to scratch or asking a friend to help proofread your CV.

It could also mean asking for help when you're struggling with your mental health or factors outside of work. There’s a solution to most problems and the best way to find it is to work together.", says James, who looks after junior and middleweight graphic designers and art directors at Represent.

As the Arena say themselves, If you are between 16-25 years-old, based in the UK and passionate about working in the creative industry, then this opportunity is for you.

Of course, the programme is 100% free and applications are open until Friday 19th March 11pm GMT!

You can view more about the programme and apply here:
thearena.org.uk/mentoring

More on their recent interview with James here:
thearena.org.uk/in-the-arena-with/james-mclearie

Words: Joe Cooper