New Creative Traineeship Programme Launches

Young people with a love for fashion and music are being offered a traineeship that will provide the opportunity for work experience within the creative industry as well as essential skills to take in to the workplace. This new scheme, which will start this November between Kaplan and This Is Creative Enterprise (TICE), will provide 7-week government-led traineeship programmes for young people aged between 16 – 18. Kaplan, one of the UK’s leading providers in education and training are now working with TICE, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting young students in exploring the creative sector, have come together to create the ideal creative traineeship programme. Traineeships are designed to help young people who want to get an apprenticeship or job but don’t yet have the appropriate skills or experience. This scheme will provide a 4-week work placement within some of the North East’s leading creative organisations plus 3-weeks training with Kaplan and TICE. Students will be introduced to the career path options within the music or fashion industry and will have the chance to gain hands-on experience such as working in the recording studio, visual merchandising, customer profiling, e-commerce and retail work experience as well as employability training from Kaplan and sector training from TICE. Freya Ayriss, who took part in the pilot scheme in the summer, describes her involvement: “I had an amazing time, meeting new people, learning the industry terminology and getting to know everything I could about the fashion industry in such a short space of time. This has given me the confidence to look further into the fashion industry and whether a job in the industry would be something I want to do. Overall the experience has been great, and has definitely made me think a lot about my future.” Supporting the scheme and sharing knowledge and expertise with the young people are local businesses Generator and Beatdown Records as well as management and publishers of well-known music artists including Jake Bugg, Adele, Mumford & Sons and Coldplay, amongst others. Retailers in Newcastle involved include Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, Topshop and Jules B. Jennifer Barrett, managing director of TICE and fashion mentor said: “These traineeships are centered on young people being able to access entry and experience in the creative industries. It's extremely hard for a young person starting from 16 years to gain relevant work experience in this sector or for companies to take them on due to their lack of skills. In addition to the specialist creative and employability training they receive, we are working with very forward-thinking companies who recognise the benefits in starting to train young people of this age. With everyone working together there’s a very positive outlook for young people and creative traineeships.” Danielle Kershaw, national traineeships manager for Kaplan said: “Kaplan traineeships combine real work experience, employability skills and on the job training to help young people get their career off to a flying start. "Kaplan has been delivering traineeships since August 2013 and are seen as the leaders in the field. We work in line with Ofsted expectations to ensure Kaplan endorsed creative courses offer students all the skills and support they need during their first experience of creative industries – so the students are in very safe hands.” Open Days are taking place for anyone interested in enrolling on to the course. The next one to take place is on 3rd November (12pm-2pm) at Kaplan in Newcastle.  The first course starts on the 9th November. For further information and to register your place visit www.thisiscreativeenterprise.com/creative-traineeships-2015-16/