Young Producers Training

Boost your career in the creative industries with five months of event production training.

Open to aspiring or early-career producers aged 16-30 from across Greater Manchester.

As part of the training you'll work as a group and receive a budget to produce your own event. What that includes is up to you. We’ll facilitate a space for you to examine how changing climates (geo, socio and political) affect you and your generation.

This is your chance to be part of a youth-led movement for positive change within the music industry.

This training comes at an exciting time for Manchester. In October, the city will host Worldwide Music Expo (WOMEX) - the biggest conference of the global music scene. Your event will take place on the eve of WOMEX, giving you a chance to play a key role in a moment that will further connect Manchester with the rest of the world.

What’s involved

You’ll take part in a training programme covering all aspects of live event production including:

Project management
Producing and programming
Managing budgets
Fundraising and sponsorship
Marketing and communications
Artist liaison
Pre-production and advancing
Health and safety
Inclusion, access and safer spaces
Monitoring and evaluation

Guided by producer, DJ and facilitator Balraj Samrai and other guest speakers such as BBC and UK Music, you’ll decide what themes your event in October will platform.

Through group discussions we’ll touch on key issues related to the future of the music industry such as sustainability, identity and representation. Whatever you’re passionate about, bring it to the table.

This is for you if you’re…

An aspiring or practising artist, musician, event producer or other creative with an interest in making a difference to the music industry
Keen to develop new skills to kickstart or boost your career
Aged 16-30
Based in Greater Manchester

We actively encourage applications from young people who may feel intimidated or locked out of music industry discussions. We want you to create a bold statement of intent about how to create positive change within the music industry at all levels. The voices of Manchester’s diverse communities are essential to making that happen!

Costs

The project is free to attend. To help you take part we’ll cover:

Travel and accommodation costs
Access costs - for things like disability support, translation or childcare

Bursaries of £350 are also available to people who:

Need to take unpaid leave from work to take part
Work in a freelance capacity and will have to turn down work to take part
Are in low income employment
Receive Universal Credit, or another job allowance, as their main income

Bursaries are not available if you are in full time education.

If you’re not eligible for a bursary, we’ll provide you with £30 per day / £15 per evening session to cover expenses.

When and where

Sessions will take place in Manchester on the following dates:

Saturday 8 June (10am-4.30pm) - introductory ‘bootcamp’ day
7 x Wednesday evening sessions (6-8.30pm) on 19, 26 June, 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 July
Sunday 8 September (10am-4.30pm) - second ‘bootcamp' day
6 x Wednesday evening sessions (6-8.30pm) on 11, 18, 25 September, 2, 9, 16 October

Sessions will take place either at the Brighter Sound office (Green Fish Resource Centre, M4 1LE) or Contact, with some off-site visits.

The final event will take place all day at Contact on Tuesday 22 October.

Brighter Sound and Contact are both wheelchair accessible, with accessible, gender neutral toilets.

How to apply

In the application form we'll ask you some basic details, along with the following questions (these are prompts, not compulsory questions):

Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re passionate about
What interests you about this opportunity?
If you could change one thing about the music industry what would it be?

You can either answer these questions in writing, or you can record yourself. If you do this, you'll just need to include links to your video or audio recordings. Have a read of our Application Guidance for more information on how to answer these questions.

The application deadline is Tuesday 28 May, 11pm.

We encourage you to submit your application before the deadline but if you need a bit more time we can stretch an extra day or two. You’ll need to let us know by Wednesday 22 May if you’d like an extension.

You're welcome to apply with support from a personal assistant or carer. If there is anything we can do to help you to apply, please let us know.

Ready to apply? Head over to our Google Form.

Nominate someone

If you know someone who you think would be interested in taking part, why not nominate them?

Send the person’s name and email address/social media profile to [email protected] and we’ll send them the application details.

Safer Spaces and Safeguarding

We aim to create spaces that are welcoming, engaging and supportive. Spaces where everyone is able to be themselves, and where abuse and discrimination are not tolerated.

Read our Safer Spaces Policy for more information.

Our approach to Safeguarding is the foundation of our Safer Spaces approach. By Safeguarding we mean the wellbeing, and protection from harm, abuse and mistreatment of anyone who benefits from our work, team members and others we come into contact with. Anyone who is part of our team has appropriate safeguarding knowledge and an understanding of how to deal with safeguarding issues should they arise.

Read our Safeguarding Policy for more information.

Got questions?

Get in touch by emailing [email protected].

Or you can give us a call on 0161 546 5334. Please leave a message and we’ll get back to you.