Dv8 Training: The Open Fund for Organisations
For:
Live Lyricist Lounge and the Emerging Music Stage
Find out more by visiting:
DV8 Entertainments was established as an event promotions company in 1996 promoting club events, tours and outdoor music festivals. In 1999 DV8 Entertainments became Dv8 Training and started delivering music, fashion and media courses on housing estates in Waltham Forest and the annual Eastside Community Festival at Marsh Lane E10.
This transition from events to training happened when Dv8 founder Alexis Michaelides was first approached in 1999 by a community development officer in Leyton to use his promotions experience to develop a course for young people from the local housing estate, teaching them all aspects of event promotion through staging their own event. The young people then had the opportunity to further their skills through work experience on the Eastside community festival. Fast forward 13 years and Dv8 students now host their events every term at Stratford Circus under the brand ‘Eastside Stories’, having first moved to the Circus in 2006.
In 2000 Dv8 Training launched an innovative community record label, Eastside Records. The label supported artists from North & East London and launched various related companies including UK Street Sounds and EGA Music, now a successful management company with a roster of artists signed to major labels including Devlin and Code Red.
Between 2000 and 2008, Dv8 training developed its core offer of courses in music, media, events, performance and fashion. The key to the design of these courses was for young people to have the opportunity to create, produce and work on industry standard projects including events, music videos, music compilations, youth magazines and websites. Many students from Dv8 successfully joined the Dv8 work experience programme in this period and were able to use skills learned on the course and to access placements at companies such as Adidas, MOBO, My space and RWD magazine.
Since 2008 Dv8 developed new areas of delivery and started to offer Creative Apprenticeships in Media and Events, Creative Diploma’s for young people in Waltham Forest schools and BTEC’s in Music & Media. This was an important change in the Dv8 offer because it allowed learners at DV8 to progress from level 1 to level 2 and onto Apprenticeships at DV8 where they could achieve their aspiration of getting an actual job in the industry.
Since Dv8 Training launched in 1999 it has grown and changed dramatically. What started off as a sole trader delivering at the Oliver Close estate in E10 has now grown to a training provider employing 60 staff and delivering across 4 centre’s in London and the South East.
The success of all Dv8 courses is principally due to the dedicated and expert staff team who are all specialists and experts from the creative industries as well as qualified teachers and support workers. It has always been very important to Dv8 to provide the range of expert support to young people to overcome challenges in their lives and to enable them to access and improve their education. This ethos has been central to the achievements of the 3000 young people that have attended Dv8 courses since 1999.
Ofsted stated in 2008 that “Dv8 are outstanding at meeting the needs and interests of learners” and rated Dv8 as a good provider with outstanding features. In 2011 Ofsted compiled a good practice study of how Dv8 deliver English, Maths and ICT within the vocational curriculum.
PRSF funding will help finance a 1 day event, post-olympics at the 2012 site ‘the London Pleasure Gardens’. DV8 have been invited to host this event on this historic site.
The day’s activities will comprise of Live Lyricist Lounge and the Emerging Music Stage, curated by and delivered by young people from DV8 training organisations. Young people enrolled at DV8 Training will identify British new musical talent, programme them, then write, produce and perform their own work alongside recognised headline talent.
These young musicians from DV8 will be supported in workshops hosted by Devlin, Lady Lashurr, Maiday. Maiday is a rising star and has written for Wretch 32, Ed Sheeran and Roxxxane.