West Ham has teamed up with The Prince’s Trust to offer a group of young adults the chance to take their first steps in media.

‘Get Started’ is a week-long course designed to inspire and enhance employment prospects for 16-25-year-olds looking for work in the industry. To that end, members of the club’s media and marketing departments have been sharing their experience and expertise.

With each programme focusing on one specific theme, the West Ham United Community Sports Trust opted to provide a bespoke media course, including behind-the-scenes tours of the BBC, as well as the Hammers’ Chadwell Heath Training Ground.

The youngsters also enjoyed an audience with West Ham winger Matt Jarvis, himself a Prince’s Trust ambassador. The 27-year-old fielded questions on a variety of topics, while happily volunteering his advice too.

Mona Boghdadi of the Prince’s Trust, said: “There have been a lot of people this week that have met and made contact with the BBC, at West Ham and Matt Jarvis, from whom they’ll take confidence.

“They’ve felt quite inspired because they have been hearing other people’s stories and I think they’re a bit taken aback by how approachable, how nice everyone was and how willing people were to offer a helping hand.

“The session with Matt was really good. He was really relaxed, really approachable and really chatty, so I think it automatically put the young people at ease and it just felt more like a conversation among friends.”

Safaa’a Muhammad was particularly keen to note that, even for Jarvis, the path to success had not been an entirely straightforward one. Jarvis recalled the heartbreak of being released by Millwall as a 16-year-old, and urged the youngsters to ignore the knockbacks and continue working hard. Safaa’a said: “Matt Jarvis persevered and look at him now, he’s a player for West Ham and he wouldn’t have got here without that perseverance.

“The course has been a great opportunity for us and though it’s only a short course, they tried to cram in as much as possible for us to get involved in, meeting players, as well as people in the industry.”