National Theatre apprenticeships

[GridGirl]

National Theatre Apprenticeships - no info on whether it's paid or unpaid on the site, but plenty of links for more information.

[CharlotteWylie]

Technical Theatre Apprenticeships are run countrywide and vacancies across the country can be found on the National Apprenticeship Services website.

 

Apprentices are paid with the minimum wage currently at £2.60 an hour of £104 a week for a 40 hour week. This is the minimum and many employers will pay more or increase the salary as the Apprentice's knowledge develops.

 

Apprenticeship's are typically aimed at those 16-18 years of age. However anyone 19 and over can complete an Apprenticeship, but the full funding is not available and the training provider may require a contribution towards training costs from the employer. Anyone qualified to level 4 (in any subject) will not be eligible for any form of funding to complete an Apprenticeship.

 

It is also worth knowing that there are various incentive grants for employers (dependent on eligibility) to take Apprentices (in all subjects, not just Tech Theatre) so if you are thinking about recruiting then speak to your local training provider!

[bigclive]

"Apprentices are paid with the minimum wage currently at £2.60 an hour of £104 a week for a 40 hour week. This is the minimum and many employers will pay more or increase the salary as the Apprentice's knowledge develops."

 

Seriously? :blink: Guys, don't waste your time. Go and get a REAL apprenticeship with transferable skills and more cash, then do theatre later if you still want to.

[J Pearce]

So that's a pay rate of almost a cup of coffee an hour?! Get real people, there are jobs out there that actually might cover your cost of living.

What a joke!

[Yorkie]

I remember looking at apprenticeships in a different subject. £100 a week these days probably sounds ok if you're 16 and you live with your parents, otherwise of course it's an insult

[the kid]

So aimed at London people and would JUST pay for an oyster card tube trip. But still it is not bad for 16.

[kerry davies]

Two years is not an apprenticeship to anyone other than a politician.

[bigclive]

Maybe it's an exploitaship. You work for buttons and get a worthless pseudo qualification at the end that won't actually get you real work.

[ramdram]

That said above...it IS gaining some experience after all and, as mentioned too, there IS some cash involved. The money is the going rate for that age group as an apprentice.

 

Granted there is NO guaranteed job at the end of it...but, on the other hand if there is no other work available it is better than scuffing around on the dole with possibly dubious characters getting into mischief.

 

Plus, as we have discussed more than once in other threads, when a "hopeful" goes for an interview at least there will be common language...and the manager weeding out the wannabes has to at least give the application a second glance when reading of two years work in a theatre.

 

(That's with my "glass half full" hat on.)

 

Just one other thought..it's funny that the heads up for this thread came from the other side of the planet...

[agermich]

I've just read the job description for the National appernticeship and it says regarding salary:

 

HOURS: You may be required to work up to an average of 48 hours per week, over a 26 week reference period, including the day spent at college. You will occasionally be asked to work evenings and Saturdays

PAY: Under 22 £12,729.60 per annum

22 and over £15,550.08 per annum

ANNUAL LEAVE: You will receive 28 days annual leave a year, including bank holidays.

 

I'd say that that was pretty good pay for an apprentice. I went to Uni for 3 years to study theatre production and my first full time job in London paid £15,000.

 

Mike

[richb]

Critically, any genuine apprenticeship is a step in the right direction, ie away from the far more morally dubious (and often far more exploitative and elitist) world of internships.

 

I hope this is the start of a trend.

[themadhippy]

if it is indeed a proper apprenticeship then £12k a year aint bad,when I started out the rate was £27 a week (worth about £80 today) for the first year,£2 a week more than the yts

[CharlotteWylie]

I am very suprised with the reaction to the Apprenticeship Scheme - the purpose of the Apprenticeship to an individual is to allow them the opportunity to train in a vocational area while getting real on the job experience and get paid for it. The alternative route would be to complete a part/full time qualification with no vocational experience thrown in and no salary. How else do you get into an industry you have no experience in other than offering yourself for free!?

 

Employers like Apprenticeships as its an opportunity to succession plan for the future, take staff that are clearly keen to develop a career in a specific area and support those without the means to pay for an expensive array of qualifications who can not afford the more usual route of A-levels and Degree. It is not a 'cheap' option for an employer as they have to beable to offer the support and training to make is viable.

 

These are very real qualifications indeed and are also a well recognised route into Higher Education (and cheaper!).

 

To understand the qualifications then please look at the Sector Skills Council for the industry which is Creative and Cultural Skills: http://www.ccskills.org.uk/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx. These quals are all written with the National Occapational Standards in mind and in collaboration with industry. Each industry has one of these councils!

 

I hope this is useful in explaining a little about why Apprenticeships are GREAT and how they are developed.

 

 

 

 

[kerry davies]

Charlotte, I am a great supporter of REAL apprenticeships which are few and far between and have been peripherally involved in this thing since before CC Skills was founded and have supported the idea of the NSA from the very beginning.

 

One of the saddest days of recent years was to see the disappointment on the faces of CC Skills staff at a launch when it became obvious that many (not all!) colleges saw it as merely an economic boost to their funds.

 

I have also challenged one apprenticeship provider in the live sector when they proudly announced that they pay their apprentices £2.60 an hour for unsupervised warehouse work.

 

I am fully in support of real apprenticeships and have lauded certain schemes on BR for a long time. I still do. However those taking up some schemes need to be really careful that they gain worthwhile experience and are not exploited as cheap labour. In many cases, unfortunately, it would be more sensible to work as local crew whilst undergoing specific skills training in real world scenarios.

 

As long as the NMW for 18-20's is £4.98 an hour, paying a 19 year old apprentice in a technical discipline £2.60 an hour is extracting the urine. The Millennium centre achieves the same level 2 in a year so colleges pushing two year schemes is suspiciously like income enhancement.

[CharlotteWylie]

Hi Kerry

 

I agree - I think that there are a few employers out there that do treat Apprentices as cheap labour - and I would hope that the training provider they are working with does not continue to place Apprentices with them in the future if they suspect that this is what is going on.

 

I think in terms of this National Theatre vacancy they are planning for an Apprentice to complete both the intermediate and advanced Apprenticeship in 2 years, I agree that the intermediate should be approx. around the 12 months for full completion (dependent on the individual of course!).

 

Salary is always a tough one, however Apprenticeships are aimed at 16-18 year olds, although there are more and more older (19+) Apprentices out there, but in my experience most are paid what they are worth with the £104 a week treated as it is intended (as a minimum) not an ultimate set in stone salary. And as you say after the first 12 months a 19+ must be paid the NMW for their age.

 

I think the good guys out there are by far more than the bad guys - its just the bad guys get more press!