Business

The FREE six-week course that helps young Mancs get into high-flying creative careers

Skills that will put you to the front of interview queues. 

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 18th August 2022

So the exams are done, you’ve got your results, and the whole world is your oyster. 

But no matter how well results day goes, the question of ‘What’s next?!’ can feel like a daunting one, and the jump from education to the world of work often feels absolutely massive. 

It’s why The Digital Youth Hub has been created – a completely free six-week course that will ease the transition, give you some seriously useful skills to move forward with, and put you to the front of interview queues. 

Through workshops, masterclasses and skills sessions, you’ll learn how to create content, build a digital CV and find out about ways to access Greater Manchester’s booming creative jobs market. 

You can get a taste for industries like marketing, photography, web development, social media management, copywriting, podcasting and discover the employment opportunities available for young people equipped with creative digital skills.

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Each member of The Digital Youth Hub will have access to one-to-one sessions with a talent manager too, to help plan their next career steps.

The scheme comes from SharpFutures and the DWP and has been created specifically for 18-24 year olds who live in Greater Manchester and aren’t in full-time work or studies.

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The Digital Youth Hub consists of 3 elements: a physical place (at leading digital hub The Sharp Project) to create content, a virtual space to learn and be inspired and an online platform to develop and explore digital skills as you’re learning.

The Sharp Project

The Sharp Project itself, in Newton Heath, is home to more than 60 digital entrepreneurs and production companies specialising in digital content production, digital media and TV and film production – one of which is SharpFutures. 

Towards the end of the 6 weeks Digital Youth Hub members will be interviewed to join the SharpFutures POD scheme, which provides a talent pool of people who can be booked to assist on exciting projects with clients such as the BBC and Channel 4.

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The Digital Youth Hub states: “​​There are a huge amount of job opportunities out there for young people that can create content, do social media marketing and understand how businesses use digital so we’ve designed a programme to help develop these skills”

“Confidence in using programmes such as: Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, Canva and Google Docs puts you to the front of the interview queue. With additional knowledge and skills in social media management and content creation or project planning and budgeting again increasing your likelihood of employability.

“The Digital Youth Hub aims to give young people these digital life skills that will not only help them gain employment but make them a much more valuable staff member. Many of these skills are easily transferable so if they do change career paths or even decide to be their own boss, they are already a few steps ahead.”

You can sign up to the Digital Youth Hub free of charge here, and follow Digital Youth Hub on Instagram and TikTok.

Featured image: Supplied

Business

Manchester United reveal first images of ambitious plans for brand-new stadium

Danny Jones Danny Jones Man United new stadium designs Old Trafford regeneration project

After much talk of whether Old Trafford would be redeveloped or an entirely new stadium would take its place, Manchester United have confirmed their plans to build a brand-new home ground and revealed the first new images.

Put simply, it looks incredible.

Not only will a 100,000 capacity see it overtake Wembley (90k) as the biggest arena in the UK but co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS Sports group now spearheading the rebuild of the club aim for it to become “the world’s greatest football stadium”.

Unveiling the first official images along with a CGI concept video as somewhat of a teaser trailer for the new stadium, the ‘centrepiece of the Old Trafford Regeneration’ project, Stretford and beyond are set to look very different.

The first thing to note is the striking shape of the new stadium complex; while many fans were worried designs would resemble another shiny metallic bowl shape like many other new stadiums across Europe and the globe, chief architects Foster + Partners have gone for a much different visage.

Lord Norman Foster, the company’s executive chairman, said as part of the full announcement: “This has to be one of the most exciting projects in the world today. It all starts with the fans’ experience, bringing them closer than ever to the pitch and acoustically cultivating a huge roar.

“The stadium is contained by a vast umbrella, harvesting energy and rainwater, and sheltering a new public plaza that is twice the size of Trafalgar Square.”

Revolving around three tall spires – a trinity, if you will – the new Man United home campus will be covered by the large netting-esque feature which wraps around the main stadium structure itself.

Credit: Foster + Partners
“Our current stadium has served us brilliantly for the past 115 years, but it has fallen behind the best arenas in world sport”, says Ratcliffe.

Set to cost in the region of £2 billion, it is believed the huge undertaking could be completed within the space of five years.

With support from the government as part of the official Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force, which Mayor Andy Burnham, the likes of Gary Neville, Lord Sebastian Coe and other notable figures serve on, the wider goal is for the redevelopment to transform the area and expand further into South Manchester.

The club claims ‘New Trafford’ (not an official name) will create 92,000 new jobs, involve the construction of 17,000 homes and bring an additional 1.8 million visitors to the area annually.

As per further particulars shared online, it is said that the ground would be visible from the Peak District and even the outskirts of Liverpool “in optimum conditions”; the tallest mast will be larger than Beetham Tower and 15.5% of the seats will be reserved for hospitality.

You can see more images of what they hope the stadium and atmosphere to look like during a night match down below:

“We are proud to be supporting that mission with this project of national, as well as local, significance”. (Credit: Foster + Partners)

Although millions of fans will be torn over the decision to leave the existing ‘Theatre of Dreams’, it has been widely reported that the cost of renovating Old Trafford as fans know it today could prove almost as costly as building the new sporting arena entirely.

Commenting on the plans, the club’s legendary manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, has backed the move. He said as part of the official statement: “Manchester United should always strive for the best in everything it does, on and off the pitch, and that includes the stadium we play in.

“Old Trafford holds so many special memories for me personally, but we must be brave and seize this opportunity to build a new home, fit for the future, where new history can be made.”

It’s also still unclear as to what will happen to Old Trafford, although the belief is that it will remain intact next to the new stadium nearby and be used for Man United Women’s fixtures as well as youth games.

You can hear Lord Foster talking through the plans and see the design in more detail down below:

The new ‘Wembley of the North’.

Read more:

Also remarking on the plans, Mayor Burnham, added. “Our common goal on the Task Force has been to try to unlock the full power of the club for the benefit of its supporters and for Greater Manchester as a whole – creating thousands of new homes and jobs.

“If we get this right, the regeneration impact could be bigger and better than London 2012 [something he’d already said this time last year]. Manchester United could, and indeed should, have the best football stadium in the world.”

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“To me, that means a stadium that is true to the traditions of the club, affordable to all, with nobody priced out, and a stadium that sets new standards in the game globally. I believe this vision can be realised, and if so, the benefits for Greater Manchester, the North West and the country will be huge.”

How do you feel about the plans, Reds?

Featured Images — Manchester United (via club website)

Business

Manchester City could win the biggest prize money in football history this summer

Danny Jones Danny Jones 2025 FIFA Club World Cup $1 billion prize money Manchester City

Treble winners and four-time consecutive Premier League champions, Man City, could collect arguably their easiest payday yet this summer by playing just seven matches, as it has been confirmed that the total prize money pot for the 2025 Club World Cup is a whopping $1 billion.

We know you can’t hear us through the screen but just know there was an audible gulp.

That’s right, the winner of this year’s FIFA Club World Cup competition will not only get to don the same golden badge as Manchester City did last season but also be able to claim the biggest chunk of an equivalent £775m in British sterling should they emerge victorious.

Not only does this now make the upcoming edition of the international club tournament the most lucrative one in world football but it will also be the biggest single pot of prize money ever won in the sport’s history.

Set to take place in the US this summer from Saturday, 14 June to Sunday, 13 July, the 2025 Club World Cup will be a revamped version of the competition that had already been won once by City, once by Manchester United, and once by Liverpool.

It only began back in 2000, with Brazilian side Corinthians winning the inaugural edition and giants such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Barcelona going on to lift the trophy multiple times – Los Blancos boasting the most with five wins.

Cut to the present day and following major sponsorship and broadcasting deals being struck in recent months, with DAZN securing exclusive worldwide broadcasting rights as well as 24 games being televised by TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport).

For a long time, the significance of the Club World Cup has been put to one side and merely dismissed a series of glorified pre-season friendlies by teams and their supporters alike.

However, it’s fair to say that offering figures in the region of £100m or maybe even upwards of that for just four weeks of work, as Kaveh Solhekol puts it, will no doubt see plenty of teams change their tune. In theory, they don’t even need to win them all to get their hands on it either.

To put these figures into context, the total prize money for the 2022 Qatar World Cup was $440 million (approx. £341.8m); Argentina got almost £33m of that and the winner of this current UEFA Champions League campaign will earn around £21.1m on top of the roughly £15.7m they get for qualifying.

So yeah, it’s very big money…

Only Chelsea and Man City are among those representing the UK in the tournament this summer, and although the Blues haven’t been at their very brilliant best this season, you would bank on beating a lot of the big hitters contending for the Club World Cup title this year.

Major European names include record-winners Madrid as well as their Athletico; Bayern and Borussia Dortmund; PSG, Inter, Juventus and Benfica, not to mention the likes of Messi‘s Inter Miami – who have the home nation advantage – Palmeiras, River Plate, Boca Juniors and more from outside the continent.

Read more:

Although FIFA is yet to confirm exactly how much the winner of this £1 billion competition will take home, in the instance of the now record-breaking 2025 Club World Cup, it seems that it really is the taking part that counts.

Even if the estimate of £77.5m for the champion is vaguely accurate, that’s game-changing money for any team, especially Man City given the shadow of FFP, PSR and the now 130 alleged charges still looming over them.

Investigations and slightly nauseating levels of money on the line aside, as is often the case with football these days, City continue to become an increasingly massive and truly global club.

So much so that the Etihad Campus won’t soon just be a stadium and series of sports facilities but a year-round ‘entertainment destination’.

Manchester City reveal name, official partner and more images of huge new Etihad Stadium hotel
Taking the lion’s share of that $1 billion Club World Cup prize fund could go towards paying off a good chunk of ‘The Medlock’.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group

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