Apple program to boost creative skills of migrant workers

Around a hundred migrant workers aged 16 to 25 are getting the opportunity to improve their photography and video skills and learn to create their own music works with smartphones in Beijing.

The program, Today at Apple Creative Studios, is jointly initiated by the Beijing-based China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, YouChange China Social Entrepreneur Foundation and Apple Inc.

In the next three months, the young trainees are going to take lectures, visit leading enterprises like ByteDance and Taihe Music Group, and practice with experienced practitioners including the drummer of the rock band Hedgehog, app designer Sun Yong and iPhone photographer Zhang Yu.

For example, Shi plans to help the trainees learn about all the major sectors in the production workflow, from exploring more music genres, composition and arrangement to even cover design and making music videos.

She also wants to involve knowledge of band management and live concert operations so as to help young people become enthusiastic about music in order to seek jobs in the music industry, she says during the launch of the program on Tuesday.

The program is in line with our vision to integrate social resources and encourage young people to solve social problems in innovative ways and become part of a new generation that is creative, collaborative and socially responsible, says Wang Peng, deputy secretary-general of the CFPA.

The participants, mainly coming from the provinces of Henan, Liaoning, Hebei and Gansu as well as the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, are not so highly educated, with some having worked in Beijing as sellers, restaurant waiters, welders or in other front line positions for over five years.

They will carry out their own productions of interest under the guidance and present their works at Apple's retail outlet at Sanlitun in Beijing through Sept 18 to 20.

The program is also being held in Los Angeles with renowned musicians and NGOs at the same time. More such programs will take place in Bangkok, London, Chicago and Washington DC later this year.