Jobs in advertising and jobs in digital are becoming more within reach for the country's young people as apprenticeship and training schemes gain momentum across industry.
Creative Skillset's advertising apprenticeship emerged as a response to interest from both young people and industry, who identified that there was no advertising industry-targeted scheme. Since announcing it in mid February, interest from the sector has rocketed, with many agencies - such as Bray Leino, Real Adventure, TMSW and Iris - signing up.
Lionhouse creative agency in Bristol plans to begin taking on apprentices in September. Ian Noble, the agency's managing director, said: "We were approached by Creative Skillset, who were aware that between myself and Les Welch, creative director, we were interested in finding and nurturing talent within the creative industry in this region. The creative sector has, over recent years, developed a few barriers to entry, the most over being the need for a degree. By definition, a degree is sometimes the last thing we look for in identifying talented individuals."
The course will enable agencies to take on apprentices at a smaller cost and the potential new recruits will gain a level four qualification, which is the the equivalent of a foundation degree, or the first year of a degree course.
"By taking on someone who's naturally going to be questioning how we do things, there's also the opportunity to improve our processes and capabilities," Noble continued. "Agencies should be a blend of gender, age and experience - after all, our clients target a wide variety of audiences and we therefore need to have empathy with different audience groups in order to create effective and appropriate communications for them.
"Hopefully, the advantages will be many and varied. We'll be giving someone with latent, but unproven talent the opportunity to develop their creative and commercial skills within a supportive environment. Other than creating a highly successful campaign for a client, there's no greater reward than seeing someone fulfil their potential."
Agencies can work with Creative Skillset to set up the apprenticeship and find the right recruits for their business, while young people with an interest can contact the organisation directly through their website or Facebook page to enquire about placements.
In West Bromwich, another organisation, the Learnplay Foundation, is working alongside other schemes which help jobless youngsters look for work, such as The Prince's Trust and Pertemps People Development Group (PPDG), which runs a government work programme in the Black Country. It also works with Neet's - young people not in education, employment or training - which runs outreach programmes and tries to bring youth back to education, training and the job market. The foundation, a social enterprise, is training people in computer games programming, design, art, video and music.
Luke Levi, 19, from Wolverhampton, has been benefiting from Learnplay Foundation training: "I've been creating music for some of the videos Learnplay produce, which has given me more of a valuable insight into how the industry operates. I've got my own studio and ultimately it's where I see my future, but working here has given me the chance to enhance my existing skills and learn some new ones."
The foundation focuses on training young people in games development, a sector which is booming in the Birmingham and Midlands digital job market, further increasing opportunities for career development. Games developed by those on the scheme are used in partnerships with primary schools to improve literacy and numeracy, while pensioners benefit from programmes designed to alleviate the effects of dementia.
Employment minister Mark Hoban said: "Jobseekers are getting individual and tailored support, giving them a realistic chance of finding work, while businesses are benefiting from recruits with the right skills and motivation. Work Programme is also a winner for taxpayers as, unlike previous welfare to work schemes, providers are rewarded in line with the results they deliver."
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