Music is the hub of careers show

This month sees Peterborough Music Hub gearing up to support The Skills Service at this year’s annual Careers Show. The free event will be held at the East of England Arena and Events Centre on Friday, June 23, with over 200 exhibitors and professional Careers Advisers on hand to guide young people aged between 14-24 into making informed choices and decisions about future training and careers options.

Peterborough Music Hub is sponsoring the Creative Zone - an area of the show specialising in advice relating to Creative Careers across all artforms and the vast array of roles available to young people supporting creative skills. The Economic Estimates of DCMS Sectors reported that cultural organisations and practitioners contributed £27bn to the UK economy in 2015, across 642,000 jobs.

Furthermore, with many traditional roles in decline due to automation and technological advances, creative skills offer an attractive option for dedicated young people, providing jobs across a range of disciplines.

Of course, not everyone can become the next Ed Sheeran or Adele, but music, as a career, offers a wealth of other opportunities. UK Music reported recently that the economic contribution of the core UK music industry to the national economy is £3.5bn across 101,680 full time jobs.

The Creative Zone will include representatives from training providers (including the work of the excellent Pe- terborough Regional College) and offer face-to- face opportunities to talk to industry professionals. There will also be song and dance performances throughout the day, demonstrations of technical equipment, competitions, advice on CVs and lots of great information across the world of work.

Visit www.careersshow. co.uk , or Like ‘The Skills Service’ on facebook or follow @UK_Skills on Twitter.

The Music Hub team, along with partner organisation PHACE, will be on hand to discuss all things music and creative - including the benefits of learning a musical instrument as a performing arts student and highlighting ‘portfolio’ careers in the arts.

This month also sees the City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s summer concert on Saturday, June 17, at 7.30pm at the Voyager Academy. The orchestra will be playing especially composed music to accompany a screening of the film The Battle of the Somme - see www.somme100film.com for details. Accompanied school children will be admitted free.

The Steve Hession Big Band arrives at the Key Theatre on June 25 in The Big Band Theory - a charity concert in aid of The Young People’s Counselling Service. Throughout the day, Steve and members of the band including the BBC’s Young Jazz Musician of the Year Alexander Bone - will offer a free jazz masterclass for young instrumentalists playing at grade 5 and above.

The Peterborough Youth Orchestra is also adding jazz to its Summer Workshop programme this year with a new jazz ensemble meeting alongside traditional PYO members, playing at grade 6+.

There’s also ‘PYO Too’ an ensemble for grade 3 players and above. The closing date for applications is July 28.

So, with lots of great music to enjoy this month, contact musichub@peterborough.gov.uk for more details on all events.