Our Oral History training was held on the 2nd of July,  it was taught by the Oral History Society. Our Oral History training started off with a presentation from Michelle, a lecturer from Sheffield University. She spoke about what oral history is, how important oral histories are and how to conduct interviews.  Michelle also presented us with some examples of interviews that were recorded and are now considered oral history. Afterwards came the fun part of getting to use the equipment and test it out on each other!

We split up into groups of 3 to practise interviewing. One person was the interviewee, another would use the microphone and be in charge of sound and asking the questions and the last one would record a video using a camcorder. We could keep swapping until everyone got a chance to do each of the three things.

With all that practice, we were definitely more confident in handling such equipment by the end of the day and the mini interviews we did with each other meant we would be more comfortable when interviewing other people. We were taught; how to ensure the interviewee was comfortable, what kinds of questions were best to ask someone and also the dos and don’ts of interviewing someone.  At the end of the session we received certificates which meant we had undertaken the oral history training and had something to add to our Personal Achievement folders.