Celebrating our successes is an important part of work, especially in the creative industries where results and opinions can get confused, and you don’t always have a clear marker of whether you’ve “made it” or not. But these celebrations aren’t just for our pride, they can have a very real impact on our career prospects and future trajectory.

Being celebrated for work can help you develop stronger relationships with your team, encourage you to work harder, make you happier and help your creativity. Celebrations can take many forms, whether this is recognition in a company meeting, a positive appraisal, or most illusively, winning an award.

Research shows that employees who receive positive recognition for their work are more productive, have better mental health at work, and are less likely to leave their jobs. (The 2022 UK Employee Recognition Survey, Wildgoose)

Awards are a big part of working in the creative industry. From the Oscars and the BRIT Awards, to Cannes Lions and D&AD Pencils, each industry has its white whale of awards that are most coveted. Winning awards can do wonders for your career as well. It can give you gravitas among your peers, boost your confidence, provide new introductions, and open doors to opportunities that may have been closed, or hidden, beforehand.

But whilst awards can be coveted by those who want to win them, being able to enter can sometimes be the biggest hurdle. Awards shows are costly to run, and as a result, awards are not free to enter. More often than not, it means younger creatives whose employers won’t fund their entry or who aren’t able to fund it themselves are often excluded from having their work judged and awarded. Excluding work because someone can’t pay an entry fee means awards shows can never truly be diverse and fair. In turn, this then stops those people from receiving professional recognition their more privileged peers get, which restricts them from key networks, and stops them from ever finding, let alone opening, doors for new opportunities.

However, there is recognition of these problems in the industry with some award bodies beginning to make the desperate changes needed. The Audio Production Awards (APAs) are the audio industry awards run by AudioUK, the trade association for audio production companies. In a bid to create more accessible opportunities, they have launched their Pay What You Can Scheme for the third year in a row allowing entries for awards at more affordable rates for those who need it. The Pay What You Can Scheme, sponsored by Amazon Music & Wondery, was first introduced in 2021 to enable those who would find the cost of entry or ticket for the awards a barrier to entering

Whilst there isn’t any data in the UK that currently measures socioeconomic diversity in the audio and audio production industry, data from the music industry highlights the inequalities that exist here and this is likely to be the same in audio production. Just 23% of those in the music industry come from a lower socioeconomic background, despite representing 38% of the UK workforce. (Socioeconomic diversity and inclusion toolkit: Creative Industries 2021)

We asked AudioUK about the scheme and the state of socioeconomic diversity in the audio production industry.

What impact have you seen from Pay What You Can since it was introduced?

It's growing in awareness and more people are taking advantage of the scheme. It's allowed for greater diversity and representation within the entries we receive, as well as attendees coming to the event itself.

Do you think there are enough opportunities for those looking to enter audio production who don't have the connections or knowledge that often come with knowing people in the industry?

There's definitely always more that can be done, but even if you don't know people or have connections in the industry, there are a lot of organisations and charities working within the space to provide opportunities and knowledge, and it's about making those opportunities known and spreading awareness. In addition to mentoring programmes like Creative Mentor Network, there's the Radio Academy's Mentoring Scheme (RAMP) and BBC Sounds Audio Lab. AudioUK runs various training sessions throughout the year via the programme Audiotrain. UKAN (The UK Audio Network) and ELAN (the Entry Level Audio Network) are both really fantastic communities offering resources and tangible advice for people entering and starting out in the industry. All Hear is also a great resource for sharing news about upcoming awards and opportunities within the audio space. There's also Multitrack, which is a fellowship programme that helps kickstart a career in the audio industry via paid work and training at some of the UK's leading audio production companies. Morley Radio, a community radio station and podcast production house for Morley College London, help students (of any age) build and expand their own networks, develop their technical and industry skills and provide a platform for peer learning and building self-confidence. And then finally, big platforms like Audible and Amazon Music & Wondery often work with smaller organisations to provide training, industry experience and opportunities, so it's definitely worth following all the mentioned organisations on socials and seeing what opportunities are available.

What are the best ways the industry could be more conscious of socioeconomic barriers?

Firstly, recognising that socioeconomic barriers exist and serve as barriers to accessibility and understanding access is vital when it comes to creating diverse and inclusive industries. And that's accessibility to funding, to people, to opportunities, to knowledge, to training and to education etc. Providing greater accessibility within an awards structure is just one way to help. Providing mentoring schemes and pathways from early education into more vocational training within the industry. More paid work experiences for younger emerging talent. Outreach and community building between the industry and emerging talent.

If nominated, are PWYC nominees invited to the awards free of charge?

The same scheme applies to event tickets, so nominees can pay what they can to attend the awards, anything from £0-55.

The Audio Production Awards will be hosted at the BFI on Wednesday 22nd November. There are 22 awards ranging from Best Producer in Comedy, Factual, Drama & Fiction, Arts, Music, Entertainment, Lifestyle & Society, Audiobooks, Sound Design and more, plus a variety of on-mic and emerging talent awards, Best Ensemble Cast, and the special AudioUK award - last year awarded to Lily Ames and Laura Blake, Heads of The UK Audio Network (UKAN). All of which, people can apply to through the Pay What You Can Scheme.

The final deadline for entries is Wednesday, 20th September at 2pm. Contact katie@audioproductionawards.co.uk to access the scheme.

More information about the categories can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/APAS-2023.