Task 4: Employment Opportunities and Job Roles in the Interactive Media Sector 10:10

Full-Time Employment


Full-time emplyment is where an employee works the entire number of hours as defined by the employer. Full-time employment often will bring benefits over other employment times like annual leave, sick leave and holiday leave. Full-time employment usually paysmore than part-time employment and will carry more hours a week. A full-time employee usually works more than 35 hours each week. People might choose to work full-time to find a family, a house or for different reasons.


Part-Time Employment


Part-Time workers work fewer hours each week than full-time workers. There is no statute with the numbers that define full-time and part-time workers by hours but rather a full-time worker fills all hours defined by the employer where a part-time employee works less. A part-time worker usually works beneath 35 hours each week. Someone might work part-time because they have a different work-social balance or may have caring responsibilities.

Freelancer

A freelancer is someone who is self-employed and isn't commited to an employer long-term. They can be represented by a company or agency who resell labour to freelancers. A lot of freelancers will require their clients to signa  contract or verbal agreement so they do not see themselves loose the job they have been working on all this time and a client can't just pull out of the agreement.

Shift Work

Shift work is an employment pracitice where the employee make use of a service of provide a service for a clocked amount of time. This term covers long term night shifts and work schedules where employees are able to change or rotate shifts with one another.

Permanent Work

Permanent work is where an employee is paid wages directly by the employer. In addition to wages, holidays, illness and retirement plans are covered in the tenure. Workers in this sector might be able to join unions if they are available too.

Temporary Work

This type of work is also considered contractual, seasonal, interim, casual or freelance work. Under this employment you would be expected to leave the employer after a certain amount of time.

Multi Skilled Work

Multi Skilled workers are trained and confident across completing a variety of tasks in their sector of employment. Jobs in Interactive media concerning this work well for climbing the career ladder because this makes you more efficient and able to complete more tasks. Producers are often multi skilled workers.

Voluntary

Volunteers are unpaid workers who are helping a charity or organisation in activities. This usually offers mutual benefits to both parties because the voluntary worker is able to develop skills they could not get anyway else.

Casual

Casual work contracts are where a workers working hours change on a weekly basis. Employees under this kind of work usually fill in holiday or sick leave of permanent workers.

Hourly Paid

Under this kind of work the employee is encouraged to work overtime to earn more in their wages. Workers clock in using a machine and clock out with this once they have completed. There is little motivation behind this type of employment but with a lot of emphasis on completing the task set.

Piece Work

Piece work is a type of employment where employees are paid a fixed rate for pieces of work made. This type of employment does not focus on the time taken to complete the piece of work. The rate of work under this kind of employment is reliant on the employees work ethic.

Recruitment

Recruitment can work in a manner of ways for a worker. In the interactive media sector a lot of jobs come from word of mouth, trade press, personal contacts and networking. These recruitment styles work best for many employers in the interactive media sector because if someone find out a job this way then they are actively involved in the interactive media sector.

Professional Development

Education and Training

Education and training in Interactive Media surrounds the skills you have and how they can be utilised in a working environment. This would be such things as completing curriculum in schools and colleges to more advanced qualifications like Apprenticeships or the BBC College of Production.

Work Experience

Work Experience shows an employer that you have been able to work well in the sector. Work Experience will usually be completed after a set time with feedback from the people running the experience stating how you were in this time. This is a great way to get your foot in the door of the sector if you are unable to find paid work.

Continuing Professional Development

When one has a job in the Interactive Media Sector it is important that you and your skills can change as the industry and its standards change. An example of this is becoming proficient in new software programs to complete your work more efficiently. This might also involve job training where your employers send you to complete qualifications in order to allow you to complete your job better.

Information Sources

Information sources in the Interactive Media sector are well covered. Websites like Skillset are aimed at students and people trying to get in to the Interactive Media sector providing information that can help them to understand what the sector is all about. There are also specialist organisations like the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) who provide lots of information on web standards and how to utilise the Internet.

Unions and Careers Services

Because the Interactive Media industry is so vast members might be available to join a number of different kind of unions, the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) might be appropriate for web editors for example. Unions protect workers with their civil rights and make sure that they are worked fairly with union protection behind them when completing their job. Career services are often used in gaining employment in the Interactive Media sector and services such as Job Centre Plus, Medua UK or Connexions are services that are particularly helpful.

Record of Employment and Skills

A record of employment or skills is a professional portfolio that an individual keeps with them from when they leave education at the age of sixteen. This document holds all qualifications gained and statements from past employers. This includes accurate information surrounding the dates that these qualifications were gained.

Career Development

In the Interactive Media sector developing ones career can be done in relation to the skills attained for one to advance. If you have the right qualifications or are simply in the right place at the right time then you may be asked to complete tasks in the workplace. When this is evident to an employer you are able to start climbing a workplace ladder and reach higher roles in the organisation.

Self-Training

Self-training is something that a lot of people do when they are not able to get jobs. If a person collects lots of qualifications then they become more and more unique which is impressive when visiting potential employers. Self-training may involve completing private qualifications that are available from organisations like Microsoft Certification or a BBC Producers qualification.

Functional Skills

Functional skills are qualifications that you must have for an employer to want to consider you for working in their workplace. Things like English, Maths and ICT, usually at at least a C at GCSE level are enough for an employer to want to take you on along with the other qualifications that the employer is looking for.

Professional Behaviour

Reliability

Reliability of an employee is an important quality that employers will be looking for. An employer will want to know if they can rely on the individual to complete tasks set and that they can work efficiently in the employers set working environment.

Attendance and Punctuality

Attendance and punctuality are something that an employer will closely moderate. An employer will want to know how much time an employee is working for and if they are meeting the contracted agreement of working hours. If an employee is consistantly late for work and meeting then lots of time will be lost through out the year meaning lots of money will have been lost.

Commitment

Employers will want to see their employees commited to their work as this will make them more efficient when the employee is completing their work tasks. If an individual shows they are commited to the media sector in their interview then this will have a good lasting impression on the interviewer because they can see you are passionate and focused on your work.

Efficiency

Efficiency is about how well you can work. Being efficient will mean that you have the right skillset to complete a task set and that you are able to keep to a brief properly. In the interactive media sector employees will have to keep to a brief as set by the employer or a client.

Self-Presentation

Self-presentation is especially important when making a first impression on someone. If you turn up to an interview dressed smartly and well groomed then the interviewer will see you being professional and you will be far more likely to gain a job.

Communication Skills

Communication skills are important skills to have across all media sectors as communication is the foundation that the industry relies on. In interactive media companies an individuals communication skills will be highly utilised when working in teams or communicating with other companies and organisations. It is also important to consider when you are communicating from a workplace that you are representing them when you are making contact with other people so standard english with good grammar and spelling is important.

Contribution to team projects

In this area it is important for employees to communicate well with other employers in order to contribute well to a team project. Members of the team project will have to get on well with everybody in the team and must be able to share skills and work creatively to complete the task set.

Time Management

Managing your time is very important when working in the media sector. In interactive media individuals must have a clear understanding of how long it may take them to complete a task. If one was to work with a client to complete a project then the client should understand how long it may take them to complete this task thus meeting client expectations.

Personal Responsibility

Personal responsibility is something that an individual must understand is placed on them. This might be in making sure that work they take home with them is kept safe and is not damaged in the process as well as things like a duty of care to other employees and to report and dangerous or hazardous incidents to someone in the workplace so this can be dealt with.