Both the BBC and Channel 4 will be working with their suppliers to provide apprenticeship opportunities in "Open Channels" - a scheme partly funded by an initiative from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: its Employer Ownership Pilot (EOP).
The government has invested £250 million in the EOP, and this partnership between the BBC and Channel 4 is the 39th bid to receive funding under the scheme.
The BBC will be training over a hundred apprentices and sixty technology trainees to Level 5 and 6 at its training academy in the next five years, as well as creating more apprenticeships on behalf of the corporation's suppliers.
Channel 4 is creating a pre-apprenticeship online learning programme targeting young people who believe they’d otherwise have little or no chance of entering the industry. The most successful 60 participants will be placed among small and medium businesses providing services and supplies to the broadcaster.
The "Open Channels" scheme is set to include talent days with opportunities for over two thousand participants as well as more than three hundred work experience opportunities.
Both the BBC and Channel 4 are working with Creative Skillset, the industry body that supports skills and training for people and businesses in the creative industry.
Of the EOP, BIS Minister for Skills Matthew Hancock says: "The Employer Ownership Pilot is not only strengthening individual businesses. It is showing us new ways to make sure the whole of the UK economy has the skills it needs to compete in the global race."
Director of the BBC Academy and Chair of the Creative Skillset TV and Content Strategy Group says: “This project proposes to make the BBC’s training and associated resources available more widely across the broadcast supply chain, focusing on key skills gaps and making it more affordable for SMEs to invest in the diverse talent needed to drive innovation and growth.”
