Hayden targets dream career after working with Premier League Inspires mentor

Foundation of Light have been working with a pupil from Beacon of Light School to help turn his animation talents into a career.

Hayden Tench attends the Beacon of Light School which offers alternative provision for those who may be experiencing challenges in mainstream education and are at risk of failing to fulfil their potential.

Foundation of Light mentors from the charity’s Premier League Inspires programme have been collaborating with the school to offer advice and support to their students.

When Foundation coach Lewis Pye met Hayden, he noted that he was reserved and lacked confidence, but that was before he found out more about his passion for animation.

After Hayden shared his self-taught talent for drawing and animation, Lewis noticed that when talking about a subject he is passionate about, Hayden is a completely different person.

He started to find out more about the student’s career goals and the portfolio work that he has been doing, so Lewis set about learning more about pathways into the animation industry to discuss with Hayden.

The pair have been working on creating a career plan, including portfolio building, support with CV and Cover Letter writing, researching organisations in the industry, and practicing interview techniques.

On the work that he has been doing with Lewis, Hayden said: “Before I had no idea how to get into a company.

“We’ve made a plan where we start small, building a CV and Cover Letter. We’ve been working on something that I can send off to companies to try and get work experience.”

Lewis also set Hayden a project to move him out of his comfort zone and tackle a different animation style.

Hayden, who takes a keen interest in Japanese art style, was set the task of drawing something locally, to try and get his name out there within Sunderland.

Hayden set about drawing the Stadium of Light in a Japanese art style which he believes was a worthwhile project.

“I got the project to draw something for the Beacon, so I ended up drawing the Stadium of Light,” Hayden explained.

“I enjoyed it since it was a different style than I'm used to, so it was a challenge for me to learn and finish it.”

Learning and developing is familiar to Hayden who does a lot of his own research and teaching to hone his animation skills.

“I’m completely self-taught,” he admitted on starting out in animation.

“Since I used to just enjoy drawing to calm down, I mixed that in with animation websites to learn how to make animations.

“I started off Game Developing, where I had to animate my vehicles and stuff, but three and a half years since I started Game Developing, I combined it with my drawing to start animating.”