TV jewellery expert supports Blackburn College student

A jewellery expert who recently starred in the ITV series Bling has offered a Blackburn College student a work placement.

Helen Dimmick, who appeared as a jewellery expert on the show with presenter Gok Wan, helping members of the public fix, create, sell or find their dream jewellery items, offered student Rachel Stansfield a placement with her as a marketing assistant.

Foundation Art and Design student Rachel, 19, discovered a passion for marketing while studying on her course, and has now applied to study marketing at university.

The former St Christopher's CoE High School student said: “I am really enjoying my placement. Recently, I have been helping to plan our social media strategy for the next year which involves identifying the right target audience and with the aim of increasing Helen’s followers, engagement and raising awareness of Helen’s brand, primarily on Instagram.

“I have been helping Helen with photography and also working on Instagram stories and using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit footage together. We are working on a documentary project with some other students that will showcase and document the work that students from College are getting involved with in partnership with Helen.”

Rachel emphasised that more opportunities are now becoming accessible to students in Blackburn, she added: “More and more opportunities are becoming available for students in Blackburn, such as this partnership with Helen and Blackburn College, which is a step in the right direction.

“It can be hard to gain experience especially over the last couple of years with the pandemic. College has really helped me. I spoke to my tutor and said that I wanted to learn more about marketing and within a week we had this placement sorted out and I’m extremely thankful.”

Helen said: “The work Rachel has done so far has been fantastic. She has helped with things like photography, mood boards and aligning our content to our brands brief. She has also been able to teach me new skills which I am learning.

“I really believe that you can learn something from the next generation. It’s a two-way street, as a business we get to hear about new innovative ideas and get other opinions from the younger generation and I am able to mentor and help students like Rachel to develop and gain practical experience.

“It’s also been fun! It’s been really lovely to get an injection of youth and have a new way of doing things. As a small business, it’s been a huge help.”

Blackburn College principal and chief executive Dr Fazal Dad added: “We have a great relationship with lots of local employers which has seen our students gain work experience to help and develop their skills and ensure they are ready to enter a career.

“Rachel has already helped Helen’s business in a short amount of time and I am looking forward to seeing more of her work.”