My Name is Steve Nolan I have been a professional (Improvised) Musicain for 27years. Currently I am Project Manager for a European Social fund/ London Development Agency Funded project Called 'Suppoprting Talent to Enterprise'. The Step project "A Vocation In Music is completely free to those enrolled and is specifically designed to help unemployed people realise their music based aspirations by practical means towards greater fulfilment, possibly Further Education and employment within in the industry.. We Welcome people from all backgrounds and cultures & support for those with specific needs is also available.

Supporting Talent to Enterprise – Vocation in Music

Access to Music is one of the country’s biggest music education providers. We run music courses at colleges throughout the country including at the prestigious British Academy of New Music (BANM) in Bow, East London (part of the Three Mills Island studio complex), where we currently have around 350 students studying contemporary music.

Access to Music has recently been asked to run a project called Vocation in Music, funded by the London Development Agency and the European Social Fund. Vocation in Music is part of the Creative London Supporting Talent to Enterprise Programme (STEP). The main objective of STEP is to enable, nurture and train emerging talent from across London leading to employment and enterprise opportunities within London’s Creative Industries. We are looking for suitable participants and we are hoping you may be interested.

The programme is suitable for unemployed people aged 16 and over who wish to develop their music-making skills, but who have previously not had the opportunity to follow the established routes. This could be because of gender, ethnicity or disability - anything that makes it difficult to move toward their creative goals.

The programme will help people develop their skills as performing musicians, creative music producers, audio producers, vocal artists, urban/dance musicians and music entrepreneurs. Skill level initially is not important - we’re looking for people who love music and who, once motivated, would be able to identify their talents, develop their creativity and feel good about themselves and their newly acquired skills - some may even become active in the music industry or go on to further their musical education.

Each successful candidate (called a Beneficiary) would study for units towards an NVQ equivalent award at one of two levels to suit their skills and experience.

The course duration will be 120 hours over 30 weeks (4 hours per week) at the British Academy of New Music, plus 6 months post-programme tracking, and will be delivered by members of ATM’s team of experienced and dedicated tutors. The course plus all college materials and resources are completely free - there may even be some help with travel expenses and childcare.

Each beneficiary’s study will be based on an achievable and measurable Individual Training Plan and they will receive regular one-to-one mentoring, as well as a work experience placement with 'UK Unsigned' (a charity working to develop and promote UK talent) in areas ranging from performance to events management and PR.

The first phase of the project was launched in October 2006, and a second phase is now scheduled to start at the end of February 2007.

If you are currently unemployed, living in London, and have an interest in music that you wish to explore, please contact: Steve Nolan - Project Manager: email: [email protected] or ph: 07818 416 313.

Or Lilith Gottfarb – Project Administrator Email: [email protected] or ph: 020 8555 3325