Uncategorised

on

Here comes a news story that touches your cause, followed, with a few hours’ notice, by a media request. If your youth ambassadors are ready to comment, your charity gets heard, and so do they. If they aren’t, the moment goes to someone else.

We’ve been getting more charities asking us to run media training for their youth ambassadors, so I thought it would be a good time to write about what we do and why it’s worth doing.

What is youth ambassador media training?

Make (Good) Trouble’s media training is a hands-on workshop that prepares charities’ youth ambassadors for press, broadcast and social media interviews. Workshops run from a single two-hour session to a series, for groups of up to 15 young people, and we deliver them across England. So far, we’ve worked with ambassadors aged 14 to 25.

Why do young people find media interviews hard?

Your ambassadors have something important to say, and often something personal. That doesn’t make it easy to say it to a journalist, on camera, with no second take.

It isn’t easy for most young people. When the National Literacy Trust surveyed more than 105,000 UK 8 to 18-year-olds in 2025, only four in ten said they felt good at speaking in front of an audience. Employers see it too. In the Institute of Student Employers’ 2025 survey, 42% said school and college leavers fell short on verbal communication, up from 22% just two years earlier.

That’s not a failing in young people. They’ve had fewer chances to practise. This is a generation that grew up messaging more than calling, lost face-to-face time to the pandemic, and went through schools where the opportunity to do drama and spoken English have been declining. (See also the National Literacy Trust’s report, Children. and Young People’s Speaking and Listening in 2025.)

And it turns into a loop:

  1. Speaking up makes you anxious, so you avoid it.
  2. Because you avoid it, you never get the practice.
  3. Without the practice, the next time feels even harder.

Practice is what breaks the loop. Make (Good) Trouble’s media training gives youth ambassadors that practice, somewhere safe, with people on their side.

What do youth ambassadors learn in media training?

Make (Good) Trouble’s media training workshops are hands-on from start to finish. Over a session, youth ambassadors will:

  • Work out what they want to say. They start with your campaign, and their story, and frame how they want to talk about it.
  • Learn how interviews work. The different types, how to listen, what body language says, and how to ask good questions as well as answer them.
  • Try every role. If numbers and time allow, everyone takes a turn as producer, interviewer and interviewee, using professional audio kit or speaking in front of the group.
  • Practise under pressure. ‘As live’ interviews with no retakes, so they learn to keep going after a stumble.
  • Find their voice. Coaching on how to shape their stories, keeping a focus on what they want to say, and ways to handle nerves and the unexpected.
  • Take it with them. We finish by looking back at what they’ve learned, with follow-up guidance that can include CV support.

These are skills for life as much as for media. A young person who learns to handle a live interview at 17 takes that into every job interview that follows.

Make (Good) Trouble's workshop wall at Ben Kinsella Trust with post-its showing participant's goals for media training workshop including 'clarity', 'stage fright' and 'speaking under pressure'.
Young people come armed with questions, so we always start by capturing them on big Post-it notes. By the end of the workshop we go through them and make sure every query is answered.

What does your charity get out of it?

  • You can say yes. Media requests rarely come with much notice. If your ambassadors have already practised, you can take the opportunity when it arrives.
  • Your message lands. Ambassadors who know what the campaign is trying to achieve can put it across in their own words, which is what makes people listen.
  • They get their point across, whatever the question. Interviewers don’t always ask about the thing your ambassadors came to say. It’s a question we hear a lot from the young people we’ve worked with, and we help them make their point anyway.
  • You’ve looked after them. Putting a young person in front of a journalist unprepared isn’t fair on them. Our workshop students have already rehearsed what to do when a question throws them.
  • They can front your own content too. The same skills work for your social media, films and events.
  • You give something back. Your ambassadors give you their time and their stories. This sends them away with skills and confidence they’ll use long after the campaign.

How does the training work, and who runs it?

We shape every workshop around your campaign and your young people. Sessions can cover interview techniques, public speaking, fronting social media content and more.

We’ve delivered media and interview training for youth ambassadors at the Ben Kinsella Trust, for work experience students at Wakehurst, and for students at The Horsfall, part of the 42nd Street charity. As the Ben Kinsella Trust put it, their ambassadors “gained valuable knowledge and skills to support their future careers”.

Workshops are led by our co-founders, Daisy Cresswell and me. We bring years of media, journalism and public speaking experience. All our team hold advanced DBS certificates.

Youth ambassador media training: FAQs

How long is a media training workshop?

Anything from a single two-hour session to a series of workshops. We shape the length and content around your campaign and your young people.

What age group is it for?

Make (Good) Trouble has run media training for young people aged 14 to 25, and we can be flexible.

How many young people can take part?

Up to 15 in each workshop.

Where do you run workshops?

We deliver media training across England. So far we’ve run workshops in Sussex and Manchester, with Birmingham coming up.

How much does it cost?

The cost of a Make (Good) Trouble media training workshop depends on what you need: the length of the session, how much preparation is involved, the materials, and how many young people are taking part. The easiest thing is to get in touch and tell us what you have in mind. We’ll talk it through with you and give you a price.

Do youth ambassadors need any media experience?

No. We start with the basics of how interviews work and how to use the equipment, so nobody needs to have done this before.

What if an interviewer doesn’t ask about the thing they want to say?

This is one of the questions we hear most from the ambassadors we’ve worked with. Our training helps young people get their point across even when the question isn’t the one they were hoping for.

How do you look after young people who are sharing personal stories?

Make (Good) Trouble’s workshops are run as a safe, supportive space, with emotional support alongside the practical training. We carry out a risk assessment for every workshop, and we ask you to share any access or support needs in advance so we can plan the session around them. It often helps if a trusted adult from your organisation attends – one the young people already know, so they feel at home. All our team hold advanced DBS certificates.

If you’d like your youth ambassadors ready before the next media request arrives, get in touch. We’d love to hear what they need.

on

For the last three summers, we’ve packed up our microphones and headed to Wakehurst – part of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, tucked into the Sussex countryside – to spend a day with their Work Experience students. Our job: help them turn a week of hands-on learning into a podcast. Their job: tell us what it’s like to work, for real, for the first time.

Every year, we come away thinking the same thing. Good work experience isn’t a box to tick. Done properly, it’s one of the most valuable weeks a young person can have.

What is a Make (Good) Trouble workshop?

A Make (Good) Trouble workshop is a one-day podcast and storytelling session that helps young people on work experience placements make sense of what they’ve learned, build confidence in talking about their own achievements, and come away with a polished podcast episode and a written piece for their CV. We work with schools, charities and employers running work experience placements for 14–18 year olds, and we’d love to bring it to yours – get in touch to find out more. (We also run other kinds of creative workshops) 

The stuff school doesn’t teach you

You can learn a lot in a classroom. But nobody hands you a worksheet on how to introduce yourself to a room full of strangers, how to keep your cool when forty excited children are all asking questions at once, or how to pitch your own idea for a social media post and then see it go live.

That’s the gap Wakehurst’s work experience programme fills – and it’s why we love working with them.

Take Swasti, who worked with the visitor experience and commercial team: “At the beginning of the week, I was actually quite nervous… but as the week went by and I started looking at the other staff and how they do everything, now I feel a lot more confident to talk to people.” By the end of the week, she was guiding visitors around the site and running the till in the plant centre – real responsibility, not busywork.

Or Arthur, who spent his week in marketing and communications: “It gave me a brilliant sense of what the working environment here at Wakehurst is… my favourite part was creating social media posts because I got to go outside, look at it, do the research, and then put together, completely on my own, a social media post.”Knowing his work would be published – on Wakehurst’s Instagram and Facebook – gave him, in his words, “a sense of achievement.”

That’s the difference between shadowing someone and doing the job. Wakehurst trusts these young people with genuine tasks and ownership, and it shows in how they talk about their week.

Confidence, teamwork, and finding your voice

Ask any employer what they wish young candidates arrived with, and “confidence to contribute” will be near the top of the list. It’s also one of the hardest things to teach – you can’t fake your way into it. You have to be given the chance to practise it.

Charlotte, who worked in the learning department, ended up doing far more than she expected: “At the start of the week, I was definitely expecting to play a small role… however, I actually played a much bigger role when I was with some teachers. I even helped to teach some lessons, and I added a lot of extra information that I think was useful.” She wasn’t just tolerated – she was genuinely useful, wrangling school groups, transporting equipment, and even fielding a memorable case of mistaken identity during pond dipping (turns out excited eight-year-olds are very keen for a newt to be an axolotl).

Holly, working with the Marcoms team, put her finger on something we hear every year: “Everyone that works here… speaks well of what they do and loves what they do and is really passionate about it. It really rubs off on you.” Being surrounded by people who genuinely enjoy their jobs is its own kind of education – one no textbook can offer.

The nature effect

There’s another ingredient that makes Wakehurst’s placements stand out: it’s all happening outdoors, in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the country.

Sammy, who worked in the learning department, put it simply: “It’s made me feel happier just being outside quite a lot and quite at peace with the world… it’s helped improve my well-being.” Hannah, who worked in the Millennium Seed Bank, described how the experience shifted her whole perspective: “You can get a bit caught up in climate anxiety, but actually to be able to do something so hands-on and impactful… it’s made me feel really inspired that there are things that I can do.”

Abby, who spent her week in the seed bank’s lab, felt the same connection deepen: “After spending time with all the seeds and learning about how many species of plant are actually so critically endangered, I feel a lot more connected to the plants around me… it makes me feel like I need to do more work to protect the environment.”

This is where the real magic happens – young people don’t just leave with a stronger CV. They leave as genuine advocates for conservation, carrying Wakehurst’s mission with them long after the week ends.

Wakehurst work experience students recording sound effects - a buzzing bee - in the botanic garden

Work Experience students recording the sound of a bee at Wakehurst.

From placement to podcast

Our role is to help capture all of this before it fades. On the final day of each placement, we run a one-day workshop designed to help students make sense of what they’ve just experienced. We start with interview techniques training and show them how to use recording equipment, then the group spends the day interviewing each other, describing their week, and gathering sound effects from the gardens to build a real aural picture of their placement.

The result is two things: a podcast that gives listeners a genuine feel for life as a work experience student at Wakehurst – across horticulture, retail, education, marketing and the Millennium Seed Bank – and a written piece they can put straight on their CV.

It’s also, often, the first time these young people have been asked to reflect properly on their own work and articulate what they’ve learned. That skill – being able to talk confidently about your own experience – is one that will serve them in every job interview they ever do.

As Hannah put it, thinking back to reapplying after being unsuccessful the first time: “I think keep going if it’s something that you think you’ll enjoy. It’s worth it.”

Listen for yourself

Evergreen Appreciation – by Abi, Charlotte, Swasti, Arthur and Sammy, with additional sound effects by Ellen 🎧 Listen on SoundCloud

Germination, Communication and Everything in Between – by Holly, Sophia, Hannah and Lauren 🎧Listen on SoundCloud

Why this matters right now

We believe strongly in helping young people onto the work ladder – responsibly, and with real substance behind it. That matters more than ever. Entry-level jobs are getting harder to come by, and for a lot of young people, a well-run work placement is the only chance they get to find out what a workplace feels like before they’re expected to walk into one for good.

Wakehurst’s approach shows what’s possible when an organisation takes that responsibility seriously: real tasks, trust, and reflection at the end of it. The result is a group of confident, articulate ambassadors – for Wakehurst, for conservation, and for the idea that young people deserve to be taken seriously at work.

FAQs about our work experience workshops

How long is a Make (Good) Trouble workshop?

It’s a one-day workshop, usually run on the final day of a work experience placement, so students can reflect on the whole week while it’s fresh.

What age group is it suitable for?

We usually work with young people aged 14–19, matching the age range of most school and organisational work experience placements.

What do students come away with?

A finished podcast episode, a written piece they can add straight to their CV, and practical interview, communication and storytelling skills they’ll use in future job applications.

Do students need any experience with audio or podcasting?

None at all. We start from scratch with interview techniques training and how to use the recording equipment, so no prior experience is needed.

Can we run this alongside our own work experience programme?

Yes, the workshop is designed to sit on top of an existing placement, whatever the sector, to help students process and articulate what they’ve learned.

Get in touch

If you’re interested in us augmenting your organisation’s work placements with a Make (Good) Trouble workshop, get in touch.

Wakehurst work placements are open to young people aged 14–18. Contact wakehurstworkexperience@kew.org for information on how to apply.

on

A new parenting workshop – coming soon

We’re building something new at Make (Good) Trouble, and we’d really love your help shaping it.

We’re piloting a brand-new online workshop for parents and carers of teenagers. It’s practical, evidence-based, and designed to help adults connect, communicate, and stay steady through the teenage years.

If parenting a teen has ever left you feeling worried, exhausted, anxious, or unsure — you’re not alone. That lived experience is exactly why this course exists.

Our work builds on years of listening to young people, including our BBC Radio series Raising Teens, co-created with adolescents and youth mental health professionals. Across five series, The Teenage Brain was the most listened-to episode — and it’s shaped everything we’re creating now.

What the pilot looks like

  • Online, small-group sessions
  • Around 2 hours, plus a follow-up session a week later
  • Bring a real issue (and a cuppa ☕)
  • Practical tools you can try out straight away
  • Calm, confidential, non-judgemental breakout groups

The golden ticket:
Pilot participants receive free access to the full course when it launches, plus all online materials.

You don’t need to join to help

Even if you don’t plan to take part, we’d really value your opinion.

We’re asking parents and carers to complete a short questionnaire about:

  • What helpful parenting support actually looks like
  • What’s worked (or hasn’t) before
  • When and how support fits into busy lives
  • Whether current support reflects culture, identity, and lived experience

Your responses will directly shape the course.

👉 Complete the questionnaire here (thank you!)

One last ask

If you know a parent or carer of a teen who might find this useful, please feel free to share this post or pass the link on. Thank you!

on

The Make (Good) Trouble team has just finished making a film about the amazing social prescribing pilot programme in East Sussex, which you can watch below.

Created for East Sussex County Council and NHS Sussex, the film tells the stories of children, families and professionals involved in the pilot.

Social prescribing is a non-medical approach to mental health and wellbeing. “It offers time, space and a supported personalised approach to explore what matters to individuals, and to help support them as quickly and easily as possible.” (National Children’s Bureaux).

The programme used social prescribing and positive activities – like cooking classes, physical activities, and getting out in nature – to support children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing. We could see how much it transformed young people’s lives.

As one parent said in the film: “She’s blossoming at school now. It’s put in [place] a lot of strategies that that they’re still using. If you’re honest with them and you tell them everything, they’ll help. We’re living proof of that … people need to hear the good things that they do. There’s not enough people shouting – they need to shout from the rooftops about it.”

Big thanks to Luke Lebihan and Grace Tayler for their brilliant work on this film.

Find out more about NHS Sussex’s social prescribing plan.