YMP Progression Programme

Informed by the young people we work with across our programmes, We Make Culture has developed the YMP Progression Programme. We recognise that young people take part in our projects for a variety of reasons, and we aim to provide progression pathways to address each of these needs. You can see how we will do this, below.

WMC will support young people who want to pursue careers as artists. We recognise that entering the music industry is difficult , and we aim to combat this by building and contributing to community knowledge, support and networks in the North East, and beyond. We will do this by:

  • Developing the Next Steps Community

  • Providing targeted bursary, workshop and mentoring support for emerging artists

  • Working closely with Generator, Northern Roots and other PRS Talent Development Network partners to create better links locally, regionally and nationally for NE artists

WMC will support young people who want to gain experience in the creative industries and develop skills to support employability. We recognise that the creative sector can be difficult to access, particularly for groups who have been historically excluded, and we aim to support participants to develop skills to be able to develop future careers and to “do-it-themselves”. We will do this through:

  • Peer to Peer Project, supporting young people to develop facilitation skills

  • New Music Leaders programme, which will support young people to develop their own projects and events

  • Creating voluntary and paid assistant roles within WMC, giving real-life experience

WMC believes that making music is good for you. Music-making contributes to increased wellbeing, gives an outlet for self-expression and helps you to build a community of like-minded people, which can continue through life. WMC wants to ensure that there are spaces for participants 18+ to continue to connect through music.

Details of our peer-led YMP group coming in 2025.

We are grateful to Youth Music, Arts Council England and
PRS Foundation for supporting this work.