ECEM Internship report

Introduction and Aim

Within the past two decades, the Jamaican Entertainment industry has truly undergone an International revolution that has caused the world to be taking a lot of its musical and cultural markers from Jamaica. The informal and fragmented nature of the Jamaican entertainment Industry has been one of the main obstacles in the maximising of revenues and the organisation of proper industry structure that will encourage entrepreneurship and the creation of national industry comparable with other countries that have similar creative outputs The inception of the Entertainment and Culture Enterprise Management program at the University of the West Indies has truly opened another avenue for the development of trained individuals that can contribute to improvements in the business structure entertainment industry and the arts and also develop the entrepreneurial skills to create new businesses in the ever growing media and entertainment industry. The Entertainment Cultural Enterprise Management Internship is designed to allow student the experience of working in real world situations and use their on going training to analyse and learn how the Jamaican industry works. The inaugural cohort began their internship at the beginning of the summer break 2008/2009. However most of the students did not begin until mid-June Early July. The names and placements of the students are as follows.

Alecia Thompson Institute of Jamaica; Music Museum Kenrick Alexander Sharpe Centre Stage Kay-Ann Williams Touchstone Productions Bradson Longsworth From Thought To Finish

Candace Thomas JACAP/Jamaica Association of Composers, Authors and Music Publisher

Samantha Garriques Phase 3 Sashana Harris Phase 3 Marvel Austin - Jamaica Music Society

This internship programme has not been without its difficulties; both in the placement of students and in the rare case the students felt their input was not being maximized. Organisations were all willing to participate but the rate of cooperation was varied with some organisations showing serious levels of inefficiencies in agreeing to placement and commencement dates and paying a stipend. However this was not unexpected due to the nature of the entertainment industry and the current economic crisis, which has hit the industry in a significant way. It should be noted base on the feedback the industry is very enthusiastic about the internship programme and over time will support it in a very serious way. All attempts to accommodate the students (two), who were out of the island failed due to time issues in one case and in the other the student was working for a programme that was not a fit for the internship programme.

Feedback
A Meeting was held with the students on Friday August 1st. The students were then asked to give a brief description of the company that they were working with and their experiences thus far. Descriptions and profiles of the organizations are in the students initial reports. The personal reviews of the students were as expected both negative and positive.

Some of the positive were:

Enjoying the work and the placement Learning things about the intricacies of the Entertainment industry Being able to see the application of theory material from courses such as: Music Business Management, Producing Culture: Music Events and Festivals, and others.

Gaining exposure and experience from fieldwork.

Some of the Negatives were:

Not getting paid for the internship Lack of consideration for transport by supervisors In one case in particular lack of communication and interest from supervisors Students not taking the internship seriously student not showing enough initiative Not enough feedback form supervisors More time need to accommodate students going abroad which can now be addressed adequately.

Recommendations

1. A meeting should be held with all Supervisors of interns so a full understanding of what

the interns should be experiencing during their time at their companies

2. The grading system should be re-evaluated where it is one single report and the supervisor evaluation that determines the final grade. Having more than one report during the internship causes repetition of information. 3. The administration of the programme should start before the summer break so as to facilitate students going abroad and to give more lead-time to organisations who will be participating.