What better way to spend a cold, dreary Wednesday night in December than with a glass of fizz and the people behind Teesside University’s exciting new media brand TUXtra?
Chris and Hannah (that’s me) did just that when we were invited along to TUXtra’s launch night to find out more.
So, before I tell you what we thought, let’s talk about what TUXtra actually is. A multimedia platform showcasing content produced by students and volunteers from Teesside University is what it says on the tin.
In other words, a news outlet, radio station and TV platform aiming to demonstrate the best work produced by the journalism, PR, film and TV and other students at Teesside University’s School of Computing, Media and Arts.
Now, providing students with a platform to showcase their work is great, but what makes TUXtra different from any other student newspaper or radio show? To start with they have some seriously impressive facilities which wouldn’t look out of place in industry, we were given a tour and there’s been a definite upgrade since I was a Teesside University student myself.
What’s really valuable though is giving students real-time ownership and responsibility over the whole operation, from a team producing the content, to editors with responsibility for sub-editing and selecting what appears online on a daily basis. It’s a winning combination to produce graduates who have more than just classroom experience.
As a business we enjoy excellent links with the University and it’s great to see them really investing in their students and offering a platform to develop experience and industry links which are so vital when standing out from the crowd after graduation.
Having a degree is a great starting point, but we can’t ignore the fact that businesses look for graduates with industry experience who can jump straight in and start benefitting the business from day one.
TUXtra isn’t a replacement for rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty on a work experience placement, but it does provide a consistent, easily accessible way for students to gain that all important industry experience and boost their employability.
Our verdict? It’s still early days (TUXtra was created over the summer) but we’ll be keeping a close eye on how things develop and we’re excited to see what the future has in store.
The potential is there for this to be a hugely valuable resource for the University, its students, and their future employers. Kudos to Teesside Uni and its students for delivering.
Thanks for reading
Hannah