Member Article

Everyone’s a winner as Lottery grant boost Lancashire creative apprenticeships

More than 30 creative apprenticeships and internships will be created across Lancashire, following a successful bid for £90,000 of National Lottery funding from Arts Council England.

Lancashire County Council’s creative business development initiative, Creative Lancashire, joined forces with Curious Minds and other leading cultural organisations across the county to secure the funding from the Creative Employment Programme.

Young people aged between 16 and 24 will benefit from more than 30 opportunities at 18 different organisations across the whole of Lancashire, including Blackburn and Blackpool, targeted on areas of high youth unemployment.

Ruth Raban from Creative Lancashire said of the success: “The consortium of cultural leaders came together to make the programme work for Lancashire’s young people. It’s great to see arts organisations, local authorities and the LCC employment services all working together to create new jobs for Lancashire”.

Councillor Jennifer Mein, Leader of Lancashire County Council, said: “The creative industries are thriving in Lancashire and it is vital that we all work together to help create opportunities in this sector for our young people. This programme shows just what can be achieved when arts organisations and local authorities work together in this innovative way.”

The Creative Employment Programme, funded by Arts Council England and managed by the Cultural and Creative Sector Skills Council, aims to generate skilled employees by recruiting and training apprentices and interns for the creative and cultural organisations.

More than 1200 jobs have already been created across the UK. The apprentices will receive training, vital workplace experience and a nationally recognised vocational qualification based on their progress.

The apprentices and interns will be given training in essential skills for working in agency or marketing departments, such as an appropriate manner on office telephones and different types of computer programmes and software training.

The Creative Employment Programme will pay towards the young people’s apprenticeships and internships, so the employers will benefit from hiring an administration apprenticeship for as little as £3,503 per year.

The organisations involved range from a company with just two employees up to Lancashire County Council with a workforce of 35,000 people.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .