The Royal Shakespeare Company and Midlands-based training group Creative Alliance are to run an event for over 300 students to learn about careers in the creative and cultural industries.
The collaboration will help provide young people with an opportunity to gain a realistic insight into careers in the creative and cultural sector at their Creative Journeys: Meet the Professionals event, focusing on the Coventry and Warwickshire area. The event will be held at the RSC in Stratford upon Avon on Friday 9th May.
Bringing together 12 creative professionals from Art & Design, Performance, Music and Digital backgrounds, students will have the opportunity to learn about what their roles involve and how they got there. They will be accompanied by staff from Creative Alliance and Stratford on Avon College who will be on hand to advise about different learning and training paths available to them.
Creative Journeys is designed to enable young people to make more informed choices about their futures by having the opportunity of talking to professionals already in the sector and learning more about the different routes they can take to get into a variety of roles. As well as the workshop activities, there will be a marketplace where colleges, universities and youth projects will have stands displaying their offers.
Libby Alexander of the RSC’s Human Resources department who leads on Training and Development commented: “We’ve run very successful Taste of Theatre’events in the past but we’re particularly excited about this new venture. This is the first time we’ve looked at careers across the creative and cultural industries and involved other professionals talking about their roles. It’s great that by collaborating with Creative Alliance we can give this unique opportunity for young people to find out how people get jobs in our fiercely competitive world.
Noel Dunne, Director of Creative Alliance added: “Many young people, parents and teachers are not aware of the hundreds of different jobs that there are in the creative and cultural industries. It’s also a vibrant and thriving part of the economy that has actually grown during the recession. It contributes 6% of GDP and employs over 2 million people. Many of the organisations at the event will actually be recruiting young people in the coming months as apprentices and paid interns as well as providing crucial work experience and volunteering opportunities. Gathering as much experience as possible is crucial to getting your foot in the door of many businesses in our sector.”
The event is supported by Arts Connect West Midlands. Arts Connect WM is one of ten Bridge organisations, funded by Arts Council England and working across the West Midlands. Its aim is to connect children and young people with the work of arts and cultural organisations to ensure they can access and enjoy great cultural experiences.
Rob Elkington, Director of Arts Connect WM said: “We are delighted to be supporting this initiative. Many young people aged 14-19 are making crucial decisions about their future options. Getting the right information and an opportunity to talk to people about those choices can be an enormous benefit to young people in the long term.”
The event is also part of a nationwide programme of Creative Choices events organised by Creative & Cultural Skills, the sector skills council for the creative and cultural industries.
For further information on
Royal Shakespeare Companyvisit http://www.rsc.org.uk.
Creative Alliance visit www.creativealliance.org.uk
Arts Connect West Midlands visit http://www.artsconnectwm.co.uk/
Creative & Cultural Skills visit http://ccskills.org.uk/