Youth Music NextGen scheme survey results published
Harriet Clifford
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Since its launch in 2019, Youth Music’s NextGen scheme has offered paid freelance work to more than 60 18- to 25-year-olds, according to the results of a recent survey.
This article originally appeared in Music Teacher magazine.
The scheme aims to support young people at the start of their career in the music industry, with the survey finding that 41% of respondents had not been paid for their work at other organisations. Young creatives taking up opportunities with Youth Music are paid the Living Wage for their work.
Previous research undertaken by Youth Music found that a third of 1,000-plus young people surveyed said that the lack of finance was the biggest barrier to starting out in the music industry.
At the time of the most recent survey, which ran in autumn 2020, the NextGen scheme had also attracted more than 700 young people to sign up to hear about opportunities from Youth Music and their partners. 87% of respondents agreed that Youth Music is inclusive ‘to a good/great extent’ in its approach to creating opportunities for young people.
However, 19% of respondents had not yet taken part in an opportunity with Youth Music, with some writing that they had not yet found something that suited their career path.
As part of the survey, Youth Music spoke to six young people at different stages of their careers, with those further on in their careers taking on roles on the Youth Music podcast, on panels, at the Youth Music Awards, and as freelance advisors.
In June 2021, the NextGen Fund was launched in partnership with TikTok, providing young creatives with grants of up to £2,500 to help get their projects off the ground.