This session highlights the career benefits that Future Flames offers students and staff. Alongside student development, the creative enterprise provides teacher practitioners with development opportunities that keep them breast of industry trends, enabling richer and more relevant teaching, and improved recruitment.
The session was led by Liam Owen (Video Production Lecturer, Walsall College).
CPD for lecturers
A creative production enterprise keeps staff skills current:
- Many staff are existing industry experts. Future Flames allows them to stay connected to professional practice
- Being regularly on set allows staff to channel creative energy alongside instruction.
- Like students, staff encounter industry developments in real time, from changes led by AI, to new equipment like drones and 12K cameras.
Richer Teaching and Learning Strategies
Future Flames helps staff demonstrate practice to students, rather than simply describing it:
- Employer collaboration feeds directly into the quality and authenticity of classroom teaching. First-hand experience then improves student confidence, employability, and the quality of their assessed work.
- Future Flames offers students a taste of live client briefs, along with opportunities to problem solve when things go wrong – all with the safety net of a staff member being present.
- Students don’t just leave with a qualification but with a portfolio of work experience with credible organisations, helping kick off their careers.
Recruitment and Networking
Future Flames is a powerful tool at open days and recruitment events:
- Describing recent projects – filming with Walsall FC, the NHS, or public figures – visibly improves prospective student and parent engagement.
- Each Future Flames job creates new connections that can lead to new college projects or external work for students and staff.