Creative Alliance set to launch free careers fair for young people

The region 's leading training provider for the creative and cultural industries, Creative Alliance is set to launch a careers fair for young people, their parents and educators.

This free to attend event is scheduled to take place on Saturday 24 September at Midlands arts centre from 1.30pm to 4.30pm

Named as 'Creative Minds ', the fair is an opportunity to find out what jobs, apprenticeships, volunteering opportunities and participation programmes Greater Birmingham 's creative and cultural organisations are offering.

Organisations joining the careers fair include B Music, Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Legacy Centre, MAC, Punch and The Rep alongside several successful Birmingham based artists and creatives including Andrew Lindo, DJ Bigoss, Maryam Wahid, Shekinah Yuhannah and Zimbo.

All attendees will get an opportunity to participate in an online creative careers education programme called 'Home Grown ' which would feature successful creatives from diverse backgrounds, abilities and experiences who all call Birmingham their home.

They will also have an opportunity to talk with the artists, creatives and representatives from the creative and cultural organisations about the jobs people do, the skills people need and the routes people take into getting sustainable careers in one of the fastest growing sectors of the region 's economy.

The Creative Careers Fair is being organised by Khadija Bhayat with funding and support provided by Gen22, the legacy programme of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Khadija joined Creative Alliance on a Kickstart placement to help unemployed young people into employment.

Khadija explains why she took the initiative to organise this event: “I have organised this event to make it more accessible for young people, particularly those from ethnic minorities, to work in the creative industries so that it is more representative of Birmingham and also to help creatives from Birmingham connect. ”

Khadija is being supported by Simeon Moore aka Zimbo and director of MindsEye Development CIC. This is an organisation that mentors and supports young people into work and learning opportunities.

Simeon Moore went on to say: “Through my work in supporting young people, I have seen a great disconnection between the young people within the city and its creative business and organisations. We have been developing strategies to help diversify the workforce of the creative industries over the next 10 years and connect Birmingham 's largest creative organisations with the young people from communities across the city.

“The reason so many employers are attending is because it 's the only collective creative careers fair happening this year in Birmingham, and it aims to attract a very broad cross section of Birmingham 's communities to it. ”

Deborah Kermode, chief executive and artistic director at MAC said: “In these challenging times, it 's vital that there remains high quality learning provision for young people through the potential of apprenticeships, volunteering, work experience and other learning and participation programmes.

Attendees can register to the event by clicking here