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Skills and training

Discover how we’re supporting Bradford’s creative sector and building the next generation of cultural leaders.

Work placements

Young people are working across our teams, developing new skills and playing key roles in delivering Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.

Apprenticeships

We’ve introduced paid apprenticeship roles across various Bradford 2025 departments, including our Marketing, Digital, Producing, Operations, Ticketing and Press & PR teams. Delivered in partnership with Access Creative College, the UK’s industry-led creative college, the programme is part of our remit to enhance skills and training opportunities for young people.

These full-time paid apprenticeships are equipping young people with skills in their chosen fields, offering hands-on experience of working on a once-in-a-generation cultural programme taking place on their doorstep.

Young Creatives

Our Young Creatives programme is helping young people to build skills and experience within a large arts organisation and our partner organisations.

Young Creatives combine their studies with work placements at Bradford 2025 team and in our partner arts organisations. Paid at the Living Wage Foundation rate, these young people are working behind the scenes on creative programming and events planning for Bradford 2025 – with more to follow.

Young Creatives is delivered in partnership with Bradford School of Art and Bradford College. The cohort are gaining vital on-the-job experience while working towards a Level 4 Professional Diploma in Creative Enterprise.

The Young Creatives programme is funded by Yorkshire-based funders the Harry & Mary Foundation and the Sykes Foundation, who share our passion for creating investment opportunities for young people connected to Bradford.

The Young Creatives programme aligns with our key principles of enhancing educational opportunities and improving the wellbeing of young people. Through this programme, we hope that these young people flourish, learn new skills and go on to be excellent ambassadors for Bradford.
John Clough Chair of Trustees, Harry & Mary Foundation

Bradford 2025 Youth Panel

We’ve recruited 17 young people aged 16–22 from a diverse range of backgrounds to join the Bradford 2025 Youth Panel.

From GCSE and A-level pupils to university students, a care worker to a finance apprentice, these brilliant young people are helping to shape our work while building their skills in creative decision-making and charity governance.

A group of young Bradfordians pose for the camera
Bradford is a really big thing for me, being born here and living here, and I love seeing Bradford getting amazing things. Bradford 2025 is going to change my city, and I joined the Youth Panel so I could be a part of the change.
Noor Bradford 2025 Youth Panel member

New Focus: Bradford Young Curators

New Focus: Bradford Young Curators is inviting 10 young people from communities across Bradford to take over Impressions Gallery for Bradford 2025.

This ambitious 18-month project is part of Impressions Gallery’s award-winning New Focus programme, which supports young people aged 18–25 to gain the knowledge and skills they need to become the creatives of the future. The Young Curators are already benefiting from workshops and mentoring from some of the UK’s leading photography experts and creative professionals.

The heart of the project is the handover of curatorial control from Impressions Gallery to the Young Curators, who are commissioning new work by five cutting-edge photographers from Bradford and beyond. The collective will also go out into communities around the District to unearth Bradford’s cherished family photos and preserve the stories behind them.

New Focus: Bradford Young Curators will culminate in the group’s gallery takeover: the Young Curators’ exhibition at Impressions and the launch of the online family album, a powerful tribute to the people and communities of Bradford.

Exhibition at Impressions Gallery opens in September 2025.

New Focus →
10 individuals standing infront of a red wall. These are the cohort who will be Bradford's Young Curators.

Building capacity in the cultural sector

Our partnership with the Bradford Producing Hub is already seeing tangible results. More than 1,000 people have so far benefited from skills-based training and creative development opportunities, building new capacity in Bradford’s creative sector.