Apprenticeships for business

Views from a creative apprentice and three employers in the music and theatre industries on why apprentices are good for business.

Zahra Williams, Creative Apprentice

"I think an apprentice brings a lot to an employer. With my job, my employer gets to go out to meetings a lot more, and do what he needs to do. And leave me in the office to do what I need to do, to help him to have his meetings

"Stuff like CDs and inlays – it sounds like a really miniscule job, but when you have to do 25 because you're going to France for a meeting it's easier for an apprentice to do it. Now I know how to use Neeto packages, do CD inlays.

"So you learn at the same time as doing it yourself. It just gives the employer more time to do something else that's really important for them."

Martin Hunt, Wales Millennium Centre

"This is a way of showing what you've done and what you have achieved."

"There's going to be a recognised level of achievement that everyone has got to do.

"Because when you just pull someone of the street and they work in a theatre for three years, some of them are very good and learn to know everything. Some of them might do nothing but push boxes for three years, and you just can't tell whether they really are any good or not.

"They have a CV which looks like they should be – but may not have used their time very well. This is a way of showing what you've done and what you have achieved."

Sherry Nicholls, UK Unsigned

"We get the opportunity to train the guys. After their training they actually come and start working with us.

"It helps us to grow, because the more people we train, the more it gives us a kick up the backside to go out and do more showcases and more gigs. And the live music industry now is bigger than it's ever been before."

Lance Williamson, Collage Arts

"That's a very important thing – young people create their own initiative, create their own opportunity."

"Some of the key people – whether they be musicians, producers, execs in the large labels – instantly recognise qualities in some of the young placements.

"It's quite funny some of the names that my placements were bandying around – big names that when I was working in the music industry, I couldn't even get in contact with. And they've already made their own linkages by themselves

"So that's a very important thing – that young people create their own initiative, create their own opportunity. Because they know it's for real."

Have your say on Creative Apprenticeships: what works? What doesn't? What do you need for the future?