Each year, our building is home to thousands of industry professionals, excelling on and off stage, and we know that to fire the imaginations of the next generation, you need to nurture young talent. At Wales Millennium Centre we work with numerous institutions throughout Wales to provide technical training, opening the doors for anyone who wants to apply.

For National Apprenticeship Week, we’re shining a light on our training scheme, speaking with one of last year’s trainees about how his time with us supported the start of his career.

Our Shared Apprenticeship Scheme offers up to ten paid year-long full-time apprenticeships in backstage technical theatre at arts venues nationwide. Open to anyone aged 16 and over, it nurtures the next wave of theatre technicians, while ensuring longevity for the sector.

Owain Watkins joined the apprenticeship scheme in August 2022, sharing his time between Wales Millennium Centre and Welsh National Opera (WNO). From a young age, he aspired to work on the professional stage, after having some experience at secondary school:

"I started applying to a couple of different theatres, asking if there were any volunteer opportunities. No one replied, apart from Wales Millennium Centre, letting me know about the apprenticeship scheme.

I was 15 at the time, so once I hit 17, I applied, and here I am now."

His apprenticeship took him and his fellow cohort on a nationwide journey of formal training and accreditation, and his hands-on experiences at Wales Millennium Centre have equipped him with many skills, including manual handling, working at height and risk assessing.

"I thought I knew quite a bit before I started the apprenticeship, but when I started, I was like, "no, I know nothing!" ... I never really considered the stage aspect, flies or anything like that."

Owain credits the apprenticeship scheme for building up his technical knowledge in a work-based setting, along with his knowledge of electronic technical aspects and health and safety regulations which have enhanced his employment credentials:

"Now that I've got PAT testing qualifications, I've been able to go out and get people to hire me as a PAT tester to come out to different companies."

He is an advocate of the transformative power of the scheme, which a year later enabled him to be employed as a casual stage technician at Wales Millennium Centre, taking him on tour with WNO's Autumn and Spring seasons, and seeing him work on the stage plot for Disney's Aladdin:

"This apprenticeship is exactly everything I wanted it to be. It's given me all the skills and all the knowledge that I wanted, and Wales Millennium Centre has given me all the training workshops and everything l would need to be able to go and create my own career for myself... I would say if you're interested in it, do it

It'll teach you all the training you need to know and if you don't want to stay in theatre, you don't have to. Once you have the qualifications, you'll be able to work in a whole lot of sectors like events, film and TV."

After collectively gaining 11,000+ paid hours of hands-on technical theatre experience and training, each Technical Apprentice graduates with a Level 3 certification in Technical Theatre, accredited by Cardiff and Vale College.