FLUX Rotherham has been involved in the Children’s Capital of Culture Traineeships programme* since 2023 and is now working with our sixth trainee, who joined us in February 2025.
The programme helps build capacity across the creative and cultural sector and supports the development of a future workforce. Of the six trainees we’ve worked with, two have progressed into alumni roles at FLUX Rotherham through additional Shared Prosperity Funding.
One of them also works as a Duty Manager at Rotherham Civic Theatre and as an Events Assistant for Rotherham Council's Events Team. Another trainee now works with Children’s Capital of Culture, has a six-month placement with FLUX on the Gallery Town Programme, and is also practicing as a freelance visual artist, while another - Ella - is currently continuing her traineeship with us.
Read Ella's story and what inspired her to create a special event exploring careers in Culture, Heritage, and Sport.
Over a two-month period starting in November, as part of my traineeship, I worked with students from Wales High School and Thomas Rotherham College to delve into culture, heritage, and sports careers in Rotherham. Through the sessions, young people explored career opportunities and started to think about their career pathways. The activities aimed to raise the visibility of culture, heritage and sports careers in Rotherham as well as celebrate what is already happening. We discussed everything from physiotherapy and coaching to animation, graphic design, and archiving, and students explored the many careers that come under the umbrella of culture, heritage, and sport. During these sessions, there was frequently the realisation that there are more jobs out there than they perhaps initially thought, with often the exclamation, “What, that’s an actual job?” “You can get paid to do that”.
Students were also supported in discussions about the practicalities of looking for careers. From ways of gaining experience to what it means to have a freelance career, where and why you might volunteer, and how to get career support, students left with an increase in knowledge. Students explored organisations in Rotherham that offer these types of careers and opportunities, including traineeships and volunteering.
This initial engagement with young people fed into the network and panel event planning. A key part of this was selecting a panel that would be relevant to the young people and touch on careers that were of interest to them. The panel, chaired by Sile Sibanda (Spoken Word Performer, award-winning BBC Radio Presenter, Creative Producer, and Facilitator), accompanied by Darlene Galabe (Children’s Capital of Culture Engagement Assistant) and Claudio Almeida (Youth and integration sports coach and youth mentor at Sheffield Wednesday), explored all things careers, from how you decide on a career path to ways of finding out about a job and the best piece of advice they had received about careers.
Following the panel, students had the opportunity to ask questions to the panel, finding out who supported the panel through their career journey and the best and most challenging aspects of their current job.
One of the most poignant questions asked by the young people was, “What happens if you don’t have any idea what career you want?”
The advice from the panel was:
The event concluded with exploring each student's dream career, working with established professionals to plot out their next steps to achieve their dream career, from volunteering opportunities, networking and utilising social media.
By Ella Franklin
* The Traineeship programme is funded by Shared prosperity Funding through the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
