RSC & Creative Alliance to Host CREATIVE JOURNEYS: MEET THE PROFESSIONALS Event, May 9

The Royal Shakespeare Company and Creative Alliance will run an event for over 300 students to find out more about careers in creative and cultural industries.

The RSC and Creative Alliance are collaborating to provide young people with an opportunity to gain a realistic insight into careers in the creative and cultural sector at their 'Creative Journeys: Meet The Professionals' event, this time focusing on the Coventry and Warwickshire area. The event will be held at the RSC in Stratford upon Avon on Friday 9th May.

Bringing together 12 creative professionals from Art & Design, Performance, Music and Digital backgrounds, students will have the opportunity to learn about what their roles involve and how they got there. They will be accompanied by staff from Creative Alliance and Stratford on Avon College who will be on hand to advise about different learning and training paths available to them.

Creative Journeys is designed to enable young people to make more informed choices about their futures by having the opportunity of talking to professionals already in the sector and learning more about the different routes they can take to get into a variety of roles. As well as the workshop activities, there will be a 'marketplace' where colleges, universities and youth projects will have stands displaying their offers.

Libby Alexander of the RSC's Human Resources department who leads on Training and Development commented, "We've run very successful 'Taste of Theatre' events in the past but we're particularly excited about this new venture. This is the first time we've looked at careers across the creative and cultural industries and involved other professionals talking about their roles. It's great that by collaborating with Creative Alliance we can give this unique opportunity for young people to find out how people get jobs in our fiercely competitive world."

Noel Dunne, Director of Creative Alliance said, "Many young people, parents and teachers are not aware of the hundreds of different jobs that there are in the creative and cultural industries. It's also a vibrant and thriving part of the economy that has actually grown during the recession. It contributes 6% of GDP and employs over 2 million people. Many of the organisations at the event will actually be recruiting young people in the coming months as apprentices and paid interns as well as providing crucial work experience and volunteering opportunities. Gathering as much experience as possible is crucial to getting your foot in the door of many businesses in our sector."

Rob Elkington, Director of Arts Connect WM said, "We are delighted to be supporting this initiative. Many young people aged 14-19 are making crucial decisions about their future options. Getting the right information and an opportunity to talk to people about those choices can be an enormous benefit to young people in the long term."

The event is also part of a nationwide programme of 'Creative Choices' events organised by Creative & Cultural Skills, the sector skills council for the creative and cultural industries.

For further information on the Royal Shakespeare Company, Creative Alliance, Arts Connect West Midlands, and Creative & Cultural Skills, visit www.rsc.org.uk, www.creativealliance.org.uk, www.artsconnectwm.co.uk, and www.ccskills.org.uk, respectively.

Everyone at the Royal Shakespeare Company, from actors to technicians, milliners to musicians, plays a part in creating the world you see on stage. Their work begins its life at the Stratford workshops, rehearsal rooms and theatres and they share it with audiences across the world through touring, residencies, live broadcasts and online activity. So, wherever you experience the RSC, you experience work that began life in Shakespeare's home town. Shakespeare has been performed and celebrated in Stratford for centuries and the RSC has trained generations of the very best theatre makers since the Company was founded. The RSC pioneers contemporary approaches to Shakespeare's plays, as well as staging the work of other writers and artists.

Creative Alliance is, the leading independent learning provider in the creative and cultural sector in the West Midlands, the largest provider of creative apprenticeships in the region, and a deliverer of training and development programmes for all levels of creative talent. The core team works with an extended network of experienced artists and creative professionals working collaboratively to develop, support and train creative talent. Creative Alliance give young people the knowledge about how people Make, Support and Organise™ the creation of artistic/creative product, the qualities people need, and the routes taken to get paid work in the sector.

Arts Connect West Midlands is part of a national network of 10 bridge organisations, funded by Arts Council England using its experience and expertise to connect children and young people, schools and communities with art and culture.

Arts Connect WM are committed to ensuring that young people shape the development and delivery of their work as a Bridge organisation. It is crucial that the voices of young people are heard at a local and regional level and that young people are included in the development of networks and programming activity.

Put simply, the aim of their work is to encourage and support children and young people to experience and be inspired by high quality arts and cultural experiences; irrespective of where they live or their social, educational or financial circumstances.

Arts Connect West Midlands works right across the West Midlands including the urban local authorities of Birmingham, the Black Country, Solihull, Coventry, Stoke on Trent and Telford & Wrekin as well as the shire counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.

The Arts Council believes that every child and young person should have the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts and culture. Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people's lives. They support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries - from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires them, brings them together and teaches them about themselves and the world around them. In short, it makes life better. Between 2011 and 2015, The Arts Council will invest £1.4 billion of public money from government and an estimated £1 billion from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.