Amazon has announced plans to fund 350 apprenticeships and traineeships across television, film and books.
The announcement comes as new research shows that Amazon has invested in excess of £4.2bn in the UK creative industries since 2010, supporting 16,000 jobs.
The independent macroeconomic consultancy Capital Economics showed that this had contributed £4.8bn of gross value (GVA) to the UK economy since 2010.
Regionally Amazon stated that 50% of the direct and indirect jobs were outside of London and the South East. The North West accounted for 840 roles, Yorkshire 660 and the East of England 930.
“The UK has long been a creative powerhouse, brimming with some of the world’s most talented authors, musicians, actors, designers, technicians and more,” said John Boumphrey, VP and UK Country Manager at Amazon.
“Amazon is unique in the breadth of creative industries we support, from TV and music, to fashion and publishing, and new data shows that our investments in these industries have contributed more than £4.8bn to the UK economy since 2010. We are committed to supporting this vital sector, and we have more than doubled our investments in UK-based productions, skills programmes, production facilities, and more to power the UK’s creative sector today, and support the creators of tomorrow.”
Amazon said it would be supporting more than 100 new apprenticeships in organisations across the creative industries and doubling its creative industries apprenticeship levy funding to £2m.
This would provide support across the sector, including the BRIT Trust and the Association for Independent Music and Women in CTRL; a Screen Skills flexible apprenticeship pilot to support both Amazon Original productions such as The Devil’s Hour and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power as well as funding apprentices on non-Amazon productions including Channel 4’s Derry Girls.
Prime Video will open up the second phase of its Prime Video Pathway to open up jobs in TV and film to support 250 additional trainees. This has been developed in collaboration with the National Film & Television School (NFTS) amongst others.
“Amazon has embraced the huge depth of creativity and technical expertise in the UK,” stated Lucy Frazer, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport.
“Its continued investment is testament to what we offer in film, music, fashion, tech and publishing. Many of its ambitions align closely with our own plans for the creative sectors and we are going to build on Britain’s status as a world-class creative nation and maximise their potential to unleash economic growth and create jobs.”
