From the 17^th – the 27th of June 2024, I had my work placement with ColneLife and NorthernLife magazine. I’ve been working with Karen, the editor and the designer,  during these two weeks, and they’ve been so nice and welcoming; they were both also very helpful and taught me how to use a bunch of different software programs that I was new to (such as Hootsuite, InDesign and Photoshop). I was able to work on a variety of projects, so it was never a dull moment for me at work. Let me tell you all about it!

Week 1…

When I first heard I would be working with ColneLife and NorthernLife, I was pretty excited but a little nervous since I’ve never done any journalism work before. I was excited to learn all the ropes. As I mentioned before, since day 1, Karen and Chris have been nothing but welcoming, making getting into the swing of things a lot easier.

“I was almost ready to give up, but thankfully, I was fuelled with coffee and mango juice!”

On Monday, I worked on the ‘Nautical but nice’ page, where I learned how to use InDesign for the first time and how to find a good range of products to place on the page in an eye-catching way. The aim was to go for a coastal theme.

On Tuesday, I did a lot more online work, learning how to make posts on ColneLife for the different events that are coming up in the community; these are now up here. I also started working on adding the listings for the many, with plenty of musical acts performing in The Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival 2024. I worked on this all that week (I was almost ready to give up, but thankfully, I was fuelled with coffee and mango juice!). On Wednesday, I picked out the recipes that you now see in this edition of the magazine. These were first posted on the ColneLife website before using Hootsuite to promote them on ColneLife’s Facebook and Instagram (which you should check out, by the way, get to it!).

However, Thursday was the most exciting day for me since I got to interview Gary Seed – the man who saved Colne Gala and also an architect who has a firm over in Manchester. I was really excited to interview him because I want to be an architect in the future, and I’m working towards this dream, so being a part of this interview was an important opportunity for me.

“The work that people have done shows just how beautiful our local area can be, no matter the weather!”

I prepared some questions to ask him, and the advice he gave me about what I could do after college has been very helpful to me. I’m considering taking a degree apprenticeship in architecture (I still have some other options in mind, but it’s good to know that I could have a good chance of being hired into an architecture firm if I do decide to go on the apprentice root since experience is something a lot of companies highly value). After the interview, I worked on transcribing the audio so that Karen could write the article for the magazine. Read it here!

Week 2

On Monday, I was tasked with picking out some photos for the Northern Life Readers’ Calendar 2025; I got the pictures from the NorthernLife Facebook and Instagram pages. Seeing the work that people have done shows just how beautiful our local area can be, no matter the weather.

I also uploaded the article ‘High Hopes’ article on ColneLife’s website and social media pages, where we take a look at Evesha and how she went from being a model to being a rope technician (another article you need to read. Click here!). I worked on next month’s Senior Snippets on Tuesday, and I was finally able to finish uploading all the upcoming acts for the Blues Festival! However, on Wednesday, I had to go through and format all the events so that they were ready to publish in the magazine. I also took the pictures of the Colne mural that you’ll see in ‘Good News and Views’.

Throughout these two weeks, Karen and Chris have been very helpful and guided me whenever I was stuck and didn’t know what I was doing. I can’t thank them enough for providing me with this experience. I would also like to thank the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and the Prince’s Trust for giving me the opportunity to work with Karen and Chris. I wouldn’t even be working here if it weren’t for them.

That’s my work week all summed up; I’ll be signing off now; take care!

 

ColneLife Aug/Sept 24