Creative industry and arts organisations in Bristol and across the West of England have become the largest group in the UK to receive funding to help generate employment opportunities for young jobless people.
The £170,000 from the Creative Employment Programme grant scheme will create more than 140 paid internships and apprenticeships in firms across the region. This second-round funding follows £198,000 awarded to the West last year in the first round.
The money is going to a consortium led by the Creative Skills Hub team in the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) working in partnership with Bristol City Council, Bath & North East Somerset Council, the Department for Work & Pensions, UWE Bristol, Business West and 26 creative and arts organisations. 
The Creative Skills Hub was created to meet the skills needs of the region’s burgeoning creative and arts sector by establishing a virtuous circle of growth between skills, employers and talent.
Bristol’s creative sector makes up about 10% of the city’s economy, employing around 16,000 people, while Bath’s creative sector is estimated to be worth around £148m – more than its tourism and retail sectors combined.
Pictured: Alice Fruer-Denham, who worked as an arts intern with Bristol City Council. See case study below
The latest funding programme aims to provide long-term, paid opportunities for young people to kick start their creative career. The funding helps organisations create six-month-long, 30-hours-a-week positions, which are fully-paid, to for 18-24 year olds who are registered unemployed. It also provides additional funding for organisations offering an apprenticeship to a young person.
LEP creative employment programme manager Nicky Williams said: “It’s really difficult to get that first step on the ladder to a creative career.
“In the West of England, particularly Bristol and Bath, the creative and cultural sector is recognised worldwide for its excellence. It’s timely for the creative industries to recognise the importance of offering paid employment opportunities to bring talent through.
“This funding gives those creative organisations that have chosen to be part of the consortium a helping hand to offer these great opportunities.”
The Creative Employment Programme is an England-wide £15m grant fund which uses National Lottery funding from Arts Council England to create 6,500 traineeships, apprenticeships, paid internships by next March.
Creative Employment Programme director Sara Whybrew added: “We are committed to helping businesses within the arts and cultural footprint grow and diversify by opening up new entry routes for talented young people who may be struggling to enter the world of work. The CEP welcomes the leadership shown by the West of England LEP in helping us drive forward our mission.”
Creative industry and arts organisations wishing to find out more about the consortium or get involved in future bids should contact nicky.williams@woeskills.co.uk.
For more information on the Creative Skills Hub go to www.westofenglandlep.co.uk/people-and-skills.
Among the members of the consortium are PAPER Arts and Knowle West Media Centre.
PAPER Arts is a new, independent three-storey art shop, gallery and studio space in Bristol’s Broadmead retail centre promoting more than 100 artists’ work – from clothing to prints, cards, illustrations and other handmade crafts.
Managing director Simone Kidner, 28, is aiming to set up an advice centre and training space for young people to learn how to make money from their creative talents.
She said: “We teach young, unemployed 18-24 year olds a range of job roles, including arts admin, social media and marketing through paid internships, to help them become more employable.
“They then promote our services to others, helping to spread the word and support more young people to follow their passion to find work in the creative industries, as well as attracting more people into our independent art shop.”
So far, five interns have gone through its six-month programme and some of them have been taken on permanently. Simone is hoping to take on another six or seven interns funded by the second round of funding.
“Working with the LEP and being a part of the Creative Employment Programme has enabled us to grow really quickly. It’s great to be able to provide paid internships for these young people, giving them the skills they need for future jobs,” she said.
Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) director Carolyn Hassan said: “The Creative Employment Programme has been great. It’s enabling us to reach a diverse group of young people, many of whom would not have been able to pursue a career in the creative industries without being paid as part of their early employment experience.
“Many young people cannot afford to volunteer and do not have access to the right networks; they find it hard to get a foot in the door. KWMC are always looking for small and large creative businesses to work with these young people to support their training and help them build the right skills for employment.”
Among those taking part in the internships was Alice Fruer-Denham, who worked with Bristol City Council.
Originally from Cornwall, Alice moved to London to study History of Art at The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Moving to Bristol after her degree, she was unemployed for eight months during which time she volunteered for many arts organisations including RWA (Royal West of England Academy) and View Art Gallery as well as getting involved with local festivals and events.
After daily internet searches and sending out around six applications a day, she came across the arts development assistant internship with the council and was successful in her application.
She said: “I’d just landed in Bristol and wanted that time to kind of get to know the arts scene and get an overview before going straight into one organisation.
“It’s been great because I’ve learnt about so many organisations I probably would never have heard of if I’d just been sat at home researching.
Alice’s role in the arts development team has mainly involved leading on a project programming arts events into two unusual disused council owned spaces in the city. Her work has included setting up a booking system for the spaces, designing and building a website from scratch, programming events to go into the spaces, and ensuring the space is maintained.
“A lot of my work has been admin based, but it’s been great to have that project where I can actually go to a space, show an artist around, and show them how their project could work,” she said. “That’s something that I’ve really enjoyed and didn’t really know I had a passion for before this role – it’s something I definitely want to carry on with.”
Completing the internship has also given Alice a more focused idea of where she would like to go with her career.
“I had this vague idea that I wanted to go in to arts and events management, curating, programming, things like that but doing this has really cemented it for me,” she said. “I have the skills now to do that, and I almost feel like I could set something up myself as well which is another option.
“I might even look into finding a space and people that I want to work with to set something up and make an exhibition space, make it work for myself.”
