Join us here at Oldham College with our exclusive interview with Jim McMahon OBE MP who spoke with two of our Media Students.

1

Hello and thank you for joining us here today at Oldham College, I'm Mario.

2

3

And I'm Jake. We're both Level 3 media students and today we're joined by the Minister of State for Local Government and English devolution. Jim McMahon. Thank you for joining us here today. Is this your first time at Oldham College?

3

2

Well, as an MP, I've been here many times before. Being an MP, I was a counselor for 13 years, including.

4

2

Being the leader of Oldham Council, so we'd very close partnership with Oldham College, not least of all just how important this place is for thousands of young people who are building their lives and building their careers. And I think if we get this to be the best it can be, then we set our young people to be the best that they can be. But obviously my experience here.

5

2

6

2

To Oldham college, because this is because they provided a media course here in digital, in TV production, in radio production and then on the other side in journalism. And basically we were learning the audio visual elements here of it. So some of it doesn't feel like it's changed too much, but so much has changed. You know, the very fact.

7

2

We are sat here in this modern studio I think speaks volumes about the investment that's being made into the students who are coming here.

8

1

Absolutely. What have you seen so far during your visit and what role do you think the college plays in our local area and for our young people?

9

2

So, I think it does two things really well. I think first of all, it recognises that.

10

2

It's not education for the sake of education, it's important, but it's about giving you the knowledge and the skills so that you can thrive in the real world, isn't it? And what does that mean? It means that you're competitive. It means that you're confident. It means you got the skill base. You can get a decent job, and from that decent work you can lead a decent life. You can support yourself and your family, and you can.

11

2

Thrive, and I think that's what the college does really well. All the courses that are being lined up here, whether it's health and social care and the facility that's being provided across the the other block or in here in terms of digital and creative, all those are really important parts of our economy and increasingly so.

12

2

And I think the very fact that you are essentially coming to College in world leading facilities where you've got the latest equipment where you've also got the tutors here that have the skills that they need to pass on to you is all is all really important and then probably on side of that, the amount of work that's taking place here just to build a campus.

13

2

Really, from nowhere I remember not that long ago, where parts of the buildings on this site were being propped up with metal girders to make sure it didn't fall down. I think, yeah, the concrete was weaker.

14

2

But it was struggling really to have facilities then the ambition of the college leadership and the pupils that came here, the students that came here. And so I think the very fact that we are in new facilities compared to what was there even 5, 6, or even 10 years ago to speak to the amount of work that's gone on.

15

1

Well, you did say earlier by the way, but for context, we are in the digital and creative building at Autumn College, we have around 600 young people studying a broader range of courses. Why do you think like personally the media industries like really important for the Community and like future opportunities?

16

1

Like careers?

17

2

Well, because I think now everything is media. You know, as I said before that I came here a long time ago and the media then was the traditional media, you know it was the TV channels of which they.

18

2

The ones that you'd recognise, but by and large, it was kind of. The printed press is where you got your news from, and even that was kind of creaking over to the Internet. But in a very kind of copy and paste way.

19

2

And what we're seeing now is our news, our information, the value to the economy is on that kind of creative products that.

20

2

And developed all the time. You know the way that people consume, but it's also where money is being made in the economy. You know, if you're a content creator and you're driving footfall and you're driving advertising revenue and you getting eyeballs on your content and you getting that repeat visit that that is money being driven through the economy, that's really, really important.

21

2

I also think increasingly, it's where people get their news from having less old people rely on the traditional news of the printed newspaper, or even their websites. They're important still, but think about where you get your news from. Make more people kind of getting in on the tram or on the bus or whatever. We'll just be scrolling through Facebook or through Twitter or through TikTok.

22

2

And they're consuming news from there. Well, that is not being created by the established media. By and large, that's being created by content creators.

23

2

Who are deciding on themselves what issues they want to report on, what they want to investigate, on what the narrative is gonna be, who their audience is going to be and what they're interested in. I think in quite an interesting way, and because that's driving footfall, that's changed and the nature of advertising, it changed the nature of where money flow through the system. I think is really exciting actually.

24

3

OK. So Mario and I are hoping to work in the media industry one day and we know politicians often rely on the media to get their message out to the world. Could you give us any tips on how to work positively with MP's?

25

2

Well, I think first of all would do what you're doing. I think having people who are interested in I don't like the lived experience, if that makes sense. I think there's a lot in politics where it's very abstract and theoretical. You know, you talk about policy, you talk about GDP, you talk about big numbers, but what politics is in the end.

26

2

Are people in their communities and I think what I would say to engage local MP's, I think we all care about at the places where we live and represent. I live in Oldham. I want this town to do well. I've only gone into politics to fight for Oldham, and the thing that will always get me around the table is talking about the town that I love.

27

2

Far more than policy. Even so. Yeah. And if you want to engage politicians, talk about the reason why they came into politics. I think that inspires them.

28

1

Well, actually that was our next question. But you already said it, but could you explain more as to why you became a politician for Oldham?

29

2

Being honest, it definitely was not a conscious decision to be a politician.

30

2

In fact, for at least a decade, I'll convince myself I wasn't a politician reasonably well, because I never had an intention of going into Parliament. I came into politics, actually. We lived in Middleton.

31

2

And I came, went to. I got my first job at Manchester University and because we were at Oldham College, I was just making new friends in Oldham.

32

2

And so when we were expecting Jack, our first son and we had to move out and set up our own house as this new kid was coming into the world, we said, well, where should we move to? Because all my friends were in and around Oldham because this is where I came to college.

33

2

We ended up in Failsworth where we bought our first house and really was kind of looking at the area and it was, it was a good.

34

2

You know, it was an OK house on an OK Street and the neighbours were fantastic.

35

2

But it's fair to say it was a part of the world that needed a bit of TLC.

36

2

See, and I suppose as time went on and as Jack was getting closer to arriving, I did look around the area and think well.

37

2

Why should it be that unless you live in the most affluent parts, the wealthiest bits of Oldham, you know the Saddleworth Belts and nice bits of Royton and the rest of it, that you aren't guaranteed a good place for your children to play, or a street that's safe, etcetera. And so we just started campaigning on one, how fast cars are travelling down the local Road, making it unsafe even for kids to play on the street.

38

2

Where they lived and then we said actually, why should kids be playing on the street? Why? Why isn't there a park in walking distance? So then we campaigned and got money for a local park and Created a park.

39

2

And then before I knew it, I was doing politics without realising that I was doing politics, you know, I was convening, I was trying to win arguments. I was trying to get funding. I was trying to build a coalition around ideas.

40

2

But it was also kind of rooted in community. And then I realised to get more.

41

2

Done.

42

2

Actually having the leave of the power doesn't matter in.

43

2

Politics.

44

2

So going from being a youth member like you would be of the area committee as it was at the time and saying actually our area needs.

45

2

This.

46

2

To be a councillor and saying right, how do we get it to be then a cabinet member or a council leader kind of recognise and actually the powers to get money where it's needed really doesn't matter whether that's about.

47

2

Good public transport, good housing, the quality of the local school. Whether people feel proud and confident and secure in the place where they live or not.

48

2

All these things are politics, and I often hear, and I hear this from adults, that, you know in their 50s, 60s, even 70s, as much as I hear it when I meet the Youth Council or do visits in schools.

49

2

It's probably a sense of we're not really into politics. It's almost the first thing y ou hear is, yeah, it's not really for us. Politics don't really do politics.

50

2

We said, well, you might not do party politics, but you must do politics. You must have a view. If you're stuck in traffic waiting to get across Oldham to get to college or to get to work or to get to a hospital appointment, you must have a view about politics. If you have a view about the quality of education in the local school, you must have a view about politics. If you're a first time buyer trying to get on the housing ladder, but you can't afford.

51

2

To get there, you must have a view about politics. If the type of job that you want to get into isn't available in your area because it hasn't had the investment that it's due and you must care about politics. If you walk down the High Street and think well, why isn't somebody doing something about this and the only difference between having people in politics and people who don't really do politics is that we've taken that step.

52

2

Actually, I'm going to be the person to.

53

2

Do something about.

54

2

It. Yeah, I mean, that's the difference.

55

3

Would you say your job role uses any creative or digital skills?

56

2

Well, it has to now. I think I'll be honest. I am not tech savvy. I kind of know what TikTok is now, but I'm not on it. I've just got used to Facebook a time when everyone else was getting bored of it and going onto other channels. I think there's a real tension, I'll be honest between.

57

2

I don't know, like the authenticity of what of why you of who you are and not all of us are sunflowers looking for the sunlight. Some of us just want to keep our, not keep our heads down.

58

2

But like a.

59

2

We just want to work through and plough through and get.

60

2

Things done.

61

2

And the truth is that you are stepping in, I think, into more of an established media space.

62

2

Than a political space. More often than not, and I think there's a balance, really. And So what I try and do, and I'm not saying I do this successfully, you know, I think voters will always be the judge of whether you did a good job or not is to try and kind of do what I think matters and do as best as I can at telling people about it.

63

2

I'll be honest, I don't think that the social media world really kind of reward that type of.

64

2

Politics.

65

2

I think if you look at kind of well it depends how you assess it. If you look at the number like followers that you get almost like the more controversial, the more outrageous you can be the more 10 seconds piece to camera in outrage, you're always going to get far more than a thoughtful.

66

2

Contribution or even changing the law in in truth. And so I think it's a real tension really about how politics goes and where it is more about celebrity and popularism, or whether it's more about the substance and just kind of that kind of slow work in a way to get things done.

67

3

OK. So for our last question, if you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self now, especially in regards to your career and education?

68

2

I think I would have definitely told myself that education mattered. I think I went through school for the sake of getting.

69

2

Through school and.

70

2

Getting out and I kind of fell.

Yeah.

71

2

Into.

Speaker 2

College because I've managed to get out of placement as an apprenticeship that told me that college would be important, but I think there's lots of young people who grow up in towns like Oldham who are going through school who don't realise.

72

2

Almost the privilege of having that investment and and the reason why that investment is important and in the end, if people want to live a decent fulfilled life and the foundation of that is always going to be that you have enough money coming into your household income that allows you to.

73

2

Live a good life.

74

2

And there are too many people in Oldham. I think that have been either let down by the education system or haven't taken advantage of the education system when it.

75

2

Was.

Speaker 2

Offered to them where they are living a cycle now of life where they're struggling to make ends meet, where they’re struggling to keep their head above water.

76

2

And it's not for the want to try in. It's not because I'm not working enough hours. It's not because they're putting the effort in, it's because the fighting for jobs at the entry level of the employment market all the time and they haven't got the schools to move up through it. And what further education does and what all the college does well is to support people with the technical skills and practical skills that they need to make sure that when they get a career that they can.

77

2

thrive and progress

Speaker 2

Through it.

78

2

And I think that's what I want. I would say to my young self.

79

2

Really, to kind of invest in yourself and understand that it's OK to invest in yourself and take the time to do that, recognising that is basically building a foundation to live a good life. It's not always just about looking at the clock and getting out the door when the bell rings.

80

1

It's about like focusing on the support you have at hand with the resources as well, isn't it?

81

2

I think so. I think some of those are technical. You know, the kit that you've got here, people.

82

2

Can't see this.

Speaker 2

because it’s a podcast I guess. But we are sat in a basically a state-of-the-art studio that when I go into the BBC or ITV to do an interview, this is what this is. The room that I sit in. So this is the investment that's being made.

83

2

And new, but actually sometimes it's the softer things.

84

2

Isn't.

Speaker 2

It. It's a tutor that doesn't give up. It's the life experience and professional experience that they're bringing away from industry where, quite frankly, particularly in this field, people could learn or earn a lot more money not working in a college, but they choose to because they want to invest and pass on that knowledge into the next generation.

85

2

As well.

86

2

And it's kind of recognising that the investment isn’t around, it's not always the bricks and mortar, it's not always a technology, sometimes it's what that person invests in. You might think there's more things to life than coming to college everyday. Yeah, “I'm done. I'm done with this”. And they pick you up and say bear with it, it's important. I don't think they recognise just how important those snapshots of conversations are

87

2

Until you get on the back end of it.

88

1

Right. Thank you so much for your time. Genuinely, this was amazing to have you here. We hope you enjoy the rest.

89

1

Of your visit.

90

2

Thank you, Mario. Thank you Jake.