Novo Talent Schools Programme
Louise delivering a careers workshop at Morpeth First School. Image: Jason Thompson, Sound Ideas
Three years of Novo Talent Schools Programme: what we've built, and why it matters
When we reflect on the first three years of the Novo Talent Schools Programme, it's tempting to start with the numbers. And they are worth celebrating: 4,124 engagements, nine Northumberland schools, 36 workshops and assemblies, seven careers' fayres, and 13 work experience placements.
But when we sit with the question ‘what, beyond the numbers, has actually changed?’
What it looked like before?
Before Novo Talent, our work with schools was focused on specific creative projects or co-creation for a production. We were open to young people who found their way to us requesting work experience - but we were waiting for them to come. In hindsight, we weren't always confident in how to structure a placement and fill their time meaningfully.
What changed?
The most significant change has been the creation of something we didn't have before: a dedicated programme that genuinely meets the needs of students, teachers and schools, and that a small organisation like ours can sustain. This is core work, not an extra.
Building something sustainable that responds to what schools need and flexes when our capacity is stretched is a real achievement. It means this work has a future.
Central to that has been listening and being proactive. We've asked schools and young people what they need, and those conversations have shaped our offer. We've developed a particularly strong partnership with Duke's Secondary School, who have helped us pilot and shape our secondary offer. Primary schools have approached us off the back of that work, leading us to develop primary workshops in response to their expressed need.
We've actively sought out work experience placements and we reimburse travel costs, because in a rural county we know that access matters. Students are telling us that their time with us has increased their awareness of careers within the creative industries and how to begin that journey (read about Alex’s experience).
We don't work in a silo
Our role is not to be the only door a young person can walk through.
We sit on the steering group of the Northumberland Cultural Education Partnership, currently mapping work experience opportunities across the county's creative industries. We've delivered workshops at a North East Combined Authority funded Creative Careers Carousel with Queens Hall Arts, and concentrated half of our 2025 schools delivery in November to align with Discover! Creative Careers Month, connecting our local work to a national conversation. In schools we signpost young people to youth theatre groups across the county and to national resources including Get Into Theatre and Discover! Creative Careers.
In partnership with Alnwick Playhouse and Duke’s Secondary School we participated in the DCMS funded Next Generation Creatives Work Experience Pilot, contributing a Northumberland perspective about the barriers young people face when accessing work experience in the creative industries.
Our Artistic Director Joe Hufton also shares his expertise as a guest tutor on Northumbria University's BA (Hons) Theatre & Performance degree — helping train the next generation of theatre makers directly.
And this work isn't siloed within our own organisation. Novo Talent was first conceived in response to the challenges freelance theatre makers face developing and sustaining careers in the North East, and to date we've supported nine freelance beneficiaries with CPD bursaries and mentoring. Supporting young people to see theatre as a viable career and supporting professionals as they navigate that path are inseparable parts of the same purpose.
Why does this matter?
On World Theatre Day this year, our team reflected on why we work in theatre. What struck us was that none of us left school with a clear map. We found our way via different paths and at different times. Unlike medicine or law, there is no single prescribed route, and portfolio working is common.
That's not a weakness of the industry. But it does mean that if young people don't encounter the industry, they may never know it's an option.
Will all 4,000 young people we've engaged with go on to work in theatre? No. And that's fine. But they now know it's a possibility. They know what roles exist beyond performing. They know there's a theatre company in their county where they can get work experience or signposting to other opportunities.
Looking forward
We have a foundation. We have partnerships. We have scope to go further.
Our ambition is to sustain and grow what we've built, not just maintaining the programme but deepening it. Novo Talent shouldn't be a single encounter, but a series of encounters spanning a young person's education, reinforcing at each stage that a career in theatre in the North East is a real and achievable thing. The more times a young person hears that message - from us, from others in the industry, through national initiatives and local networks - the more confident they become in acting on it.
That's what we're working towards.