TWO Merseyside students have secured places on an apprenticeship scheme designed to find the North West’s future creative talent.

Adele Hayter, of Prescot, and Ben Taylor, of Southport, have won places on the 18-month Advanced Apprenticeship in Media Production scheme, which creative sector support body Northwest Vision and Media (NWVM) says is the only one of its kind in the country.

The project is backed by the BBC, ITV Granada and Childwall production company Lime Pictures.

It is open to 16-22-year-olds living in the North West, and is designed for people who would not usually get the chance to break into broadcasting.

The apprentices will combine college study with paid placements, working in TV, radio, post-production, online and mobile technology, in roles such as production runner, production assistant, camera operator and web assistant.

More than 200 people applied for 20 places on the scheme, which is being run for the second time.

The first batch of apprentices will complete their training in April.

David Longworth, NWVM’s apprentices training manager, said: “We made the apprenticeship more competitive because we wanted to reflect the nature of the media industry the students will be working in.

“Taking an apprenticeship is very hard work but, for the 20 finalists, it offers big rewards as they’ll each have the chance of working with some of the biggest names in TV.

“This scheme shows talent isn’t about where you live or your skin colour, educational achievements, gender or background. In addition, by recruiting young people from different backgrounds, different cultures and with different life experiences we are helping to ensure the region’s future programming will continue to be innovative.”

alistairhoughton