Local learning provider Creative Alliance has made it on to the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Skills and Opportunities funding shortlist. Creative Alliance’s proposed project would see it collaborate with two prominent Birmingham-based businesses, Proband and Bareface, to develop the digital skills of 30 young people from the city’s most disadvantaged areas.
Creative Alliance’s project, titled ‘Digital T Skills’, is an app building challenge, which will equip young people with the skills required to design, develop, and market a digital application. If backed by the RBS Skills and Opportunity funding scheme, the programme will be able to train 30 participants for four months, culminating in them pitching their new apps to a board of creative and digital employers. The two most successful candidates will then be selected for guaranteed apprenticeships. The initiative is tailored to ensure that the young people participating develop life-long skills that will boost their employability and help kick-start a career in the creative sector.
Commenting on the project being shortlisted, director of Creative Alliance, Noel Dunne, said: “We’re delighted that RBS have seen potential in our collaboration and project idea to put us through to the public vote. If we’re successful then this will give us the chance to continue enabling talented young people to unlock their full potential and develop the skills that great employers in the city like Probrand and Bareface need. The ‘Digital T Skills’ project is one that we are incredibly passionate about, and to be able to run it would be endlessly beneficial for the young people taking part.”
Creative Alliance aims to help disadvantaged young people to get into learning, training and working in creative roles, offering opportunities to work for prominent companies such as McCann, Birmingham Rep, the RSC, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and WAA, amongst others. They work collaboratively with both young people seeking their first steps into this highly competitive sector and employers looking to expand their businesses with new creative talent, through apprenticeships, internships and traineeships.
These targets are in-line with RBS’ own qualifying criteria for those shortlisted for the Skills and Opportunity fund, which aims to ‘help people help themselves’ through funding projects run by charities, social enterprises, community groups, and state-funded schools and colleges. The fund has a budget of £2.5m, distributed nationwide, and intends to support companies like Creative Alliance in equipping disadvantaged individuals with the tools to develop the skills that will enable them to get into work. RBS focuses on initiatives that help young people to gain qualifications, whilst equally building a long-lasting legacy and making a real difference in under-privileged communities.
