Yellowzine & the Brooklyn Brothers launch ‘Night School’

The Brooklyn Brothers, an award-winning creative agency, and Yellowzine – a creative publication showcasing contemporary minority ethnic creatives in the UK – announce a joint initiative to attract people from BAME backgrounds into the creative industries.

Night School is a free eight-week training programme in London designed to bring fresh talent into advertising and creative agencies. 

Open to all 18-25 year-olds from BAME backgrounds, the programme aims to unlock creative potential, develop core skills and provide networking opportunities for future careers.
 
Night School has been designed to address the underrepresentation of talent from diverse backgrounds within the industry, including at The Brooklyn Brothers. Latest figures show that, despite the creative and multicultural society within which we live, still only 12.4% of employees within creative agencies are from BAME backgrounds. 

The programme aims to address this disconnect and open new doors that currently remain closed to talent. This starts with the collaboration between Yellowzine (the Yellow pages for creatives of colour) and The Brooklyn Brothers. The partnership will access Yellowzine’s communities and the untapped creative minds who are currently passing the industry by. 

The free mentorship programme has been set up to ease accessibility whilst providing core skills for the creative industry. The sessions will be run in the evenings to fit around existing commitments and applicants do not require any experience or qualifications – they simply need to have a natural creative flair, passion and a can-do attitude. 

Night School will focus on creativity and craft with an inspirational line up of guest speakers and facilitators from Yellowzine’s community and the wider creative industry. Speakers include:

- Adah Parris, Futurist, Cultural Innovator, Artist & Keynote Speaker 
- Adama Jalloh, Photographer 
- Brittaney Kiefer, Creativity Editor, Campaign
- Emma Townley, Editor, This Fan Girl 
- Matilda Andersson, Managing Director, Crowd DNA 
- Oreoluwa Ayoade, Co-Founder, Yellowzine
-Rupert Reynolds Maclean, Managing Director, Biscuit Filmworks 
- Stefanie Sword Williams, Founder, F*ck Being Humble

Those recruited into Night School will receive tangible benefits after the programme finishes designed to give them a platform to help secure a job within the industry. This will include a mentor for 12 months, a personal manifesto to form the foundation of a modern CV and a graduation ceremony to present their manifesto to industry contacts, media, agencies and recruiters.  

For those applicants who do not secure a place on the programme, we will continue to support their journey and career within the creative industry by providing them with the programme resources and industry contacts.

The Night School recruitment drive is now live and is focused towards the community it seeks to attract through a partnership with Yellowzine, alongside social media, an influencer strategy and guerrilla marketing activities.

Aisha Ayoade, Co-Founder & Chief Editor of Yellowzine says:
“Night School is a part of Yellowzine’s movement for the progression of African and Asian diaspora creatives in the UK. We’ve seen that ‘diversity and inclusion’ have become the biggest buzzwords in the advertising and creative industries, but in reality, diversity rates are at a standstill. With The Brooklyn Brothers, we’re putting our passion for inclusivity to practice and through Night School we are equipping young creative-minded people with the essential, core skills they need to enter and thrive in the creative industry.” 

George Bryant, Founder of The Brooklyn Brothers says:
“As an agency we focus on helping brands to rise above the noise and have a place in culture. Our aim for The Brooklyn Brothers is simple - to find raw talent who can bring their skills and creativity to the industry. We’re all excited, with our friends at Yellowzine and our special industry guests, to see what Night School brings.”

Applicants should apply here by Friday 7th June 2019.