Ata Rahman: volunteer, teacher and mentor

LCC alumni Ata Rahman puts communication at the heart of his professional life as he offers his guidance and advice to those who need it.

“I’ve been volunteering since I was 16. One of the geography teachers at school was obsessed with the fair trade movement and he used to set up fairs locally, which I volunteered for. I was like, ‘This is kind of fun, I’m meeting all these new people’, so I just kept on volunteering in different capacities.”

Volunteering comes naturally to Ata Rahman, so he was a perfect candidate to offer his services to the London College of Communication Industry Mentoring Programme.

An alumni of LCC’s MA Public Relations course, Ata was himself mentored whilst studying at the College. “I chose UAL based on reputation and because its links within the industry were fantastic compared to other universities I looked at in London. The fact we had guest lectures from the industry in every week was a big selling point for me, as was the mentoring scheme.”

Ata studied history as an undergraduate at the University of Manchester, but landed a job in corporate communications with a construction company thanks to his writing skills, (having edited the history department’s magazine at university). He then worked as a digital communications officer at the University of East London, which pushed him to gain his Masters in PR.

Still keen on volunteering, he now balances his role as communications manager for educational charity Ark Curriculum Partnerships, with being a mentor for the LCC scheme, as well as volunteering at his local language school, teaching English as a second language and training new teachers.

Through being a mentee in the LCC programme, Ata says he benefitted from realising that even though he had a clear set of career goals, he lacked experience in certain areas and was able to develop and refine his skills in response to his mentor’s guidance and advice.

The scheme sees students matched with an industry mentor, depending on their interests and preferences, for six months during their studies. It helps them to refine their goals, chart their progress, and work on their strengths and weakness with the help of their mentor.

Hard work

As a mentor, Ata has worked with a variety of students and offered his help and expertise wherever possible, but never takes the credit for their success.

“I’m obviously proud of my mentees, but it’s a reflection of their hard work. I’ve supported quite a few people along the way in different capacities and you can tell straight away the ones who are really going to put in the work. I’m sure, I hope at least, that I have helped some along the way, but it has been their own work that has got to them to where they are now and I’ve just been a little part of their journey.”

He adds: “During my studies, I didn’t have the advantage of friends or family connections in the industry. I’ve had to build and rely on my own, but, even for those students who don’t get a place on the mentoring scheme, I would just tell them to reach out to industry professionals they find on LinkedIn and ask for a bit of advice.

“Go up and chat to the industry speakers that come into the university if you have been impressed with them. I don’t think anyone is going to say ‘no’ [to becoming a contact], or they could recommend other contacts for you.”

Making these connections is, Ata feels, particularly important for BAME students trying to break into what have traditionally been white, male-dominated industries. Currently supporting organisations that promote more diversity in public relations, including BME PR Pros and the Taylor Bennet Foundation, and also a part of the Pride in London press team, Ata believes PR and the wider creative industries need to do more in relation to increasing diversity and gender equality.

“For example, if you look at most PR agencies, men are always at the top, despite a pool of talented women at the bottom. There’s so much work to be done, but one easy move companies can make and should be doing as a standard, is to always have a panel interview when hiring and always make sure that on that panel, there’s one woman, one person of colour and if possible, one LGBT person or somebody differently abled.

“I understand that is not possible in all organisations, but it can really make a difference because unfortunately, straight white men have been taught how to hire more straight white men.”

Through his volunteer work at his local language school, Ata has taught English to migrants and refugees for eight years. However, now he spends more of his time looking after the schools comms, which includes running their website and social media channels.

This volunteering has taught Ata to think about how to write each sentence as plainly as possible and how to make things easier for the students to learn.

“Our students come from very difficult backgrounds, they often don’t have wifi, they don’t have data plans on their phones, so you’re going back to some more traditional forms of comms. I absolutely love it there though, it’s like a second home and it’s great to be able to give back.”

“Volunteering is one of the best ways to gain experience, and actually my volunteering throughout my life has helped me get better jobs” – Ata Rahman

What is one key piece of advice he would give to graduates? “To get experience doesn’t mean you need to have an internship with a top PR agency. Volunteering is one of the best ways to get experience, and actually my volunteering throughout my life has helped me get better jobs. I have volunteered for many small charities who can’t afford lots of staff, but you learn more and are often tasked with more responsibilities.

“Volunteer work is often discounted by a lot of people, but in my opinion it makes you look better as you have chosen to spend some free time giving back, even if you’re gaining something from it. It is also a great talking point in interviews. I do it because I genuinely love it but being able to walk into an interview and say I run a language school in my spare time, free of charge, is a really good selling point for a person.”

Ata has recently made the decision to go freelance in order to specialise in more project-based roles. He has signed a contract with Imperial College London to work on a large-scale transformational project of revamping one of their websites, where Ata will help with content migration, content creation and the overall transformation process.

In the future, Ata also hopes to sit on some boards such as the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Public Relations and Communications Association to help make wider policy changes in regard to education, PR and diversity. He is also not going to be giving up volunteering as a mentor any time soon either…

Main feature photo by Russ Martin on Unsplash