Overview
Creative Access has partnered with ITV for 10 years in a trail-blazing partnership to improve accessibility to the television industry.
Approach
Creative Access has developed a pioneering mentoring programme with ITV. The programme provides access to those aspiring to work in the sector and to those needing support to progress their careers. By 2025, we will have matched 500 individuals in 6-month mentoring partnerships with ITV staff. This creates a positive impact for both ITV and the wider television sector.
Impact
Creative Access has been at the heart of ITV’s diversity and inclusion strategy for the past decade. We have supported ITV in multiple aspects of their work, from placing interns and alumni across the suite of ITV companies to hosting outreach events in London and Manchester.
Testimonial
“As one of the longest standing partners of Creative Access, we’ve seen first-hand the impact of the team’s dedication to creating opportunities for candidates from communities that are under-represented in television. Be that through supporting us to bring hundreds of new trainees into the group, many of whom are still with us as they progress their careers and take on more senior roles or through the ITV mentoring programme.
Julian Bellamy, MD, ITV StudiosWe’re proud to have given Creative Access a home within the ITV Studios’ offices – there is no doubt that they have been such a positive force within our industry in ensuring true diversity and inclusion for all.”
About ITV
ITV is the UK’s oldest commercial television network; a leading media and entertainment company, home of shows including Coronation Street, Love Island and The Voice.
Overview
Opera has a very unique diversity challenge as it is perceived as elitist and inaccessible.
Approach
Creative Access delivered a tiered training programme to equip staff with the confidence to navigate diversity and inclusion, working with Opera North’s board, senior management and entire team. We worked with the Opera North team to advance their wellbeing agenda, delivering workshops including managing work-life balance. Creative Access also created bespoke training for the Opera North education team to help peripatetic teachers better support the children from disadvantaged schools in which they were working.
Impact
Creative Access partnered with Opera North to shift the way the team thinks about the diversity and inclusion agenda. We helped devise a new approach tailored to their specific challenges, leading to substantive changes in programming and recruitment. We also enabled them to widen the funnel of applicants from under-represented communities applying for roles at Opera North. This contributed to a change in the perception of opera as being inaccessible to those not from a privileged background.
About Opera North
Opera North is a national opera company based in Leeds, and is a leading UK arts organisation. They create award-winning work that tours theatres and concert halls across the UK. You can find out more here.