07.02.2020: Katie Bambridge, Head of Employer Partnerships at Access Creative College, discusses the new assistant recording technician apprenticeship. 

Since having the first conversation with UK Music’s Director of Education and Skills, Dr Oliver Morris, in October about the new assistant recording Technician apprenticeship, we knew it was the perfect fit for us.

Access Creative College (ACC), formally known as Access to Music, started life in 1992 with a focus on music. So, this apprenticeship fits perfectly into the foundation on which the college was started.

In February 2020, Access Creative College took over the apprenticeship provision from NCCI (National College Creative Industries), with a focus on events, creative and cultural apprenticeships. We have wanted to add a music apprenticeship to compliment our current apprenticeship and college offer in order to offer progression opportunities for students studying at one of our eight campuses as an alternative to university.

Summer 2021 saw the acquisition of dBs Institute of Sound and Digital Technologies, growing our provision into HE (levels 4-7). As a group we have been working closely to put together the curriculum for this level 4 apprenticeship using the expertise of our apprenticeship team at NCCI, the valuable experience of music production from ACC and the knowledge and understanding of music production and audio technology in HE from dBs.

As Head of Employer Partnerships, I have been working closely with employers to understand how this apprenticeship can work within the industry and how we can adapt the delivery to suit individual employers. Working with studios and broadcasters, we are overwhelmed with the thirst from the industry for this apprenticeship.

Not only has the response from employers been staggeringly positive, but we have had an abundance of enquiries from young people wanting to get into the music industry. There has also been a massive take up from our level 3 learners studying Studio and Live Sound and Music Production (we currently have over 600 students across the country studying these subjects at level 3).

We are working behind the scenes to develop the curriculum and interviewing for our future Industry Practitioner of Assistant Recording Technician. We will be set to deliver this from April 2022.

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Katie Bambridge on katie.bambridge@accesscreative.ac.uk. Find out more about the assistant recording technician apprenticeship here.

Find out more about UK Music’s Music Academic Partnership here.