Burnham unveils plan to create 5,000 cultural apprenticeships

Published Friday 22 February 2008 at 17:20 by Lalayn Baluch

Culture secretary Andy Burnham today launched a plan to create 5,000 cultural apprenticeships over the next five years, as part of a wider strategy to boost the UK’s creative industries.

Other schemes include establishing five new “centres of excellence” to help people from all backgrounds make the most of their creative skills. The centres will be set up in collaboration with organisations such as the Royal Opera House, EMI and independent TV producer Aardman Animations.

Meanwhile, a new academy for costume and set design will also be established, in the hope to boost interest in backstage work. The move follows revealing research published last year by Creative Cultural Skills, which warned that the entertainment industry faced a damaging shortage of trained technical staff, if 30,000 technicians were not recruited over the next decade.

According to the government, the report is the first ever comprehensive plan to demonstrate official support for creative industries.

Burnham commented: “Making a career out of your passion and a business from your ideas - that’s what we want to help Britain achieve. So now is the time to recognise the growing success story that is Britain’s creative economy and build on it. The creative industries must move from the margins to the mainstream of economic and policy thinking, as we look to create the jobs of the future.

“Our vision is of a Britain in ten years time where the local economies in our biggest cities are driven by creativity. That’s why we need a clear action plan for both government and industry to keep our competitive advantage. We want to take raw talent, nurture it, and give people the best possible chance of building a successful business.”

Other commitments to boost Britain’s cultural status include a Davos-style annual event - the World Creative Business Conference - for the creative and financial sectors, which will be hosted in London for the first time this autumn.