Creative Apprenticeships: What’s the Real Story?

I recently read this article in Creative Boom. It boldly states, with very little evidence, that “creative apprenticeships are broken”.

While creative apprenticeships face systemic challenges, to say they are broken ignores the many providers and employers who have built models that demonstrably work and who achieve enormous success.

Jay is one example: who, in his early 20’s, has progressed from a Level 3 Digital Marketer Apprentice to Marketing Manager at Swof Media and is now undertaking the Marketing Manager L6 (degree equivalent) apprenticeship.

There are 1000’s of young people Creative Alliance have enabled to start and progress their careers in the creative industries through apprenticeships with the likes of Amazon, Ambassador Theatre Group, Clarion, ITV, McCann, National Theatre, Royal Ballet & Opera, Sony, Whats Possible Group as well as hundreds of SMEs in our sector.

80% of our apprentices complete their apprenticeship. That places us in the top 10 apprenticeship providers with 100+ apprentices. Of those, 75% achieve distinction. 20% of those are learners from diverse backgrounds and 20% have additional learning needs. Around 90% of our apprentices are in creative industry roles within 6 months of completion and stay in them,  with about a third progressing into managerial roles within 4 years.

Many employers know the value of a co-designed and co-delivered apprenticeship with specialist and respected Training Providers. They use apprenticeships to broaden their recruitment and development programmes to make them more inclusive and reduce barriers to people from diverse backgrounds, abilities and experiences. It working.

Why it’s working is that our curriculum requires apprentices to work on live client briefs and develop pitching, communication and project management skills; it’s not just about technical skills but workplace readiness. Apprentices apply the knowledge, skills and behaviours of a professional creative whilst they are learning them. Work based learning is so much more effective for so many learners than centre-based academic learning.

This claim is also factually incorrect. Whilst the Adobe initiative is very much welcomed. To call them an apprenticeship is wrong. They are a paid internship for graduates. They are NOT apprenticeships. The legal definition from the Government and Skills England is that an apprenticeship is “a job with learning …. 12 months of which must be spent ‘in learning’ …. With End Point Assessment occurring in the last 3 months.” That is currently being adapted; however the statement stands: the Adobe initiative is welcomed but cannot be called an apprenticeship by legally defined standards.

Why apprenticeships work is that teaching and learning is developed and delivered with employers by Training Providers such as Creative Alliance. Once the apprenticeship is complete, an independent End Point Assessment Organisation makes a judgement about whether the apprentice can enter the industry as an Advertising & Marketing Executive, Broadcast Production Assistant or Creative Industries Production Technician. These are just three of the many apprenticeships available from us as the leading Creative Industries Apprenticeship Provider.

This article does a disservice to young people, their parents/carers and their educators. Even more importantly, it does a disservice to creative industry employers. There is a HUGE demand for apprenticeships now amongst highly talented young people.  They require an alternative route into the sector other than just university degrees. Some of our entry-level apprenticeship vacancies will attract 300+ applications for ONE apprenticeship. All vacancies attract 40+ applications. Many of these applications are from graduates let down by this route and underworking in other sectors.

Creative Alliance were inspected by Ofsted in May 2025. We were rated good with outstanding elements. According to them, we have “an exemplary reputation and is an innovator in developing education programmes and creating work opportunities in the sector” that has “actively collaborated with employees across the creative sector to develop apprenticeships that meet the commercial needs of local organisations, national theatres, ballet companies, arts venues and several media creation organisations.”

What talent requires are more opportunities to get in and get on in the creative industries through apprenticeships.  Thank you to the vanguard employers who make this route work. If you’re an employer still sceptical from reading articles like this, hearing stories from others or have had a negative experience in the past, then have a conversation with me. Likewise, if you’re an employer ready to invest in talent development, contact me: [email protected] or message me on LinkedIn: Noel Dunne

To enable people to achieve success in creative, digital & marketing roles. We do this by providing the best apprenticeships, work based training and community projects that build the right pathways for success.