New arts jobs for young people

Over 200 theatre and performing arts apprenticeships across London and Essex were announced by Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw today.

The Government has announced the latest successful bids for funding to help young unemployed people into a career in the arts. These include:

* 167 arts jobs across 14 London boroughs in a project run by New Deal of the Mind. These include design assistants, marketing and press assistants and fundraisers at organisations including The British Library, the Lyric Hammersmith, the Young Vic and the Royal Court.

* 56 jobs working for a disability-led theatre group in Essex. Theatre Resource, based in Ongar, is an arts organisation specialising in disability arts and social inclusion. Also co-ordinated by New Deal of the Mind, jobs include community craft workers, marketing assistants and arts programme workers.

Ben Bradshaw said:

“I am very pleased to announce today these new jobs in the arts, all of which will be paid for by the Government's Future Jobs Fund.

“This means that there will shortly be over 200 previously unemployed young people working in an exciting, creative environment that might otherwise have proved impossible to break into.

“This £1.45 million announcement is a tremendous investment in our creative industries and in the talent of the future.”

The Future jobs Fund is a Department for Work and Pensions initiative that aims to create 120,000 jobs for young people aged 18- 24 who have been unemployed for 6 months. It forms part of the Young Persons Guarantee and contributes to the Backing Young Britain Campaign.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has committed to contributing 10,000 jobs within this, 5,000 in sport and 5,000 in culture.

Posted Thursday January 21^st 2010
By Department for Culture, Media And Sport