Arts graduate bursaries announced - graduate jobs

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has launched a £600,000 scheme designed to help hard-up arts graduates break into showbusiness.

He unveiled the Creative Bursaries Scheme alongside youngsters from the cast of Billy Elliot at a No 10 reception to mark the musical's fifth birthday.

It is designed to help at least 40 arts graduates from less well-off backgrounds secure what would otherwise be unpaid internships, as their first steps towards a career in acting, music, art, dance or in front-of-house roles.

The bursaries will be run in partnership with arts charity the Jerwood Foundation and last for up to a year, starting in September.

Mr Brown said: "We are rightly proud of the huge amount of talent and creativity that exists in the arts in the UK.

"This funding will help give some of our gifted young artists the extra support and valuable experience they need to get a foot in the door of our creative industries and help them on their way to realising their full potential.

"It is a vital boost for some of our great future actors, artists and musicians who may otherwise have slipped through the net."

He chatted to some of the youngsters from the musical as they posed for pictures round the Downing Street Cabinet table.