Live sector looks to apprentices to address skills shortage.

The massive shortfall in skilled technicians in the industry's live

sector is being addressed by Creative & Cultural Skills, which is launching its creative apprenticeship scheme later this year.

Last year C&CS, the sector skills council for music and the creative and cultural industries, produced its Creative Blueprint document that warned the Government that leading employers in the live music, events and promotions industries are reporting serious difficulties in finding, recruiting and holding onto staff experienced and qualified in disciplines including sound, lighting and rigging.

Creative Blueprint also estimated that around half of the 40,000 employees working within the UK's live entertainment sector (split roughly between music and theatre) are expected to retire within the next decade, severely crippling the ability of the live sector to mount shows.

The new apprenticeships, available to 16-24-year-olds, start in September and are expected to begin closing the skills gap: because the live sector is continuing to expand apace it is expected to generate demand for an extra 10,000 skilled offstage and technical personnel by 2017, meaning that there could be an overall skills shortage of around 30,000 in less than a decade.

The 12-18 month apprenticeships will typically see students do on-the- job training for four days a week within their chosen company and one day at college. Companies already showing an interest ...