The magazine has tied up with Blastbeat, a dynamic schools programme created by award-winning social entrepreneur and entertainments industry impresario Robert Stephenson. The programme is designed to teach young people how to set up and run an enterprise, based on the staging and promotion of a live music event.
The three winning organisations, one each from the private, public and third sectors, will be taught in an afternoon how to inspire and mentor students to help them gain the skills required to enter the Blastbeat Battle of the Bands. Employees from the winning companies will receive full back up and mentoring from Stephenson and the Blastbeat team on how the programme works, how to engage with and mentor the students and how they can help develop these students entrepreneurial and teamwork skills.
The winning participants’ progress will be followed through the pages of HR magazine and on hrmagazine.co.uk.
Coverage will include blogs and video interviews with the winning companies and employees, features on their progress and interviews with the school and students and with people in the music industry.
The campaign will be followed from start to the final Battle of the Bands at the O2 Arena in London in front of 14,000 people, where the winning act is offered management and recording deals while the winning enterprise gets seed capital to continue its good work in the community providing gigs for teens. Our winning companies will be able to bring staff to the event and enjoy our hospitality.
HR will use a range of social media to bring the campaign to life, including videos and the creation of a My Space, You Tube and Facebook page.
The initiative will be delivered by registered charity Blastbeat Education UK, founded by Stephenson. A veteran of 30 years in the music industry – managing and touring bands and running his own record label and events companies – Stephenson is dedicating the rest of his life to giving back to young people and society. He is responsible for helping many acts get their start, ranging from U2 in 1980 to Jedward in 2009.
To enter, please supply a short statement (no more than 500 words) as to why you think you should win this competition, worth £7,000 per company with regards the mentoring and participation in Blastbeat and much more in terms of promotional benefits. The judging panel will be looking for examples of how employees will bring the experience they gain back into the workplace and for companies that will maximise the experience for both themselves and the school/community. Deadline for entries is February 28.
EMAIL TO THE EDITOR: sian.harrington@markallengroup.com with the subject line HR Blastbeat.
The winners can choose a school near them to adopt or sponsor and if that school is a participating school (or will become one) they will be put together. Otherwise Blastbeat will assign the nearest school to the winners possible. Stephenson will make introductions, assist at the presentation to the students and get the programme running – helping to build the relationship between everyone and "mentoring the mentors".
Benefit to entrants
This is an engaging and fun way to develop employees’ skills while at the same time nurturing new talent.
It facilitates meaningful engagement with employees, giving them an opportunity to volunteer a few hours per month to work with students who are running the Blastbeat programme in their school.
It can be fitted into a company’s existing corporate responsibility strategy and affords many great PR opportunities – perfectly aligning HR, CSR and PR while helping to positively change young people’s lives.
