Introduction
In 2025 Rotherham has become the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture (CCoC). This title was bestowed upon Rotherham by its children and young people. It was devised by them to change the narrative about their hometown and create positive opportunities for children and young people across the borough.
The initiative has resulted in the creation of employment and training opportunities in the cultural and creative industries and health and wellbeing programmes that have supported children and young people from 2022 onwards.
What is the Children’s Capital of Culture traineeship programme?
Our traineeship programme offers young people aged 16-to-25 who live, work or study in Rotherham the opportunity to gain part-time, paid employment with some of our area’s most exciting cultural organisations.
Since 2022, we have employed 121 young people across seventeen different local organisations. From helping put on an international documentary festival in the heart of Sheffield, to turning historic country house Wentworth Woodhouse into a home for digital arts, to bringing a 70-metre-high sculpture to the heart of Clifton Park, our trainees have worked with their host organisations to create an amazing series of activities and events.
Children’s Capital of Culture is now recruiting a new group of trainees who will work on planning and delivering innovative creative events and projects that will take place right here in Rotherham. These projects will take place between August 2025 and the end of March 2026.