Theatre Venue Technician apprentice Review

Writing this review cos when I started the job a few years ago there was nothing online from former apprentices so I went in blind and feel for candidates now. It's not great but its not bad but best you know what your letting yourself in for. I honestly answer this different each day. Sometimes its really busy, bringing in heavy flight cases, taping up cables, up ladders, pulling ropes, generally run off your feet. Sometimes I got to shadow someone, or myself operate like a followspot, or just watch the shows, it can be really exciting, get to see effects and how they work behind the scenes, watch a rehearsal. Other times sat on my laptop for hours with nothing to do, because I was on top of coursework. Venues that are good use down time to teach you stuff or let you leave if there's no work to do and worse venues just left me to do whatever.

Yes. Passed the apprenitceship qualification - level 3 creative venue technician. Was put on multiple short one two day courses like first aid, knots, ropework, pyrotechnics, electrics, lighting, harness. I still don't feel well trained though. When I finished with atg it was honestly hard to get full time work in this area, your competing with people with degrees who have had teaching from professionals day in day out. On an apprenticeship you literally get whatever a person at work is willing and able to teach you. There are guys who are great and will sit you down and actually teach but your mostly learning on the job, and most of it is like how you correctly hang a light, tape down a carpet or something.

It's good. Theatre is a cool and exciting industry. You don't get stuck in an office all day and when you are you can have interesting conversations with arty people normally. That said the apprenticeship is not amazing. If someone told me they really wanted to be a theatre technician I'd never wanna put anyone off and I'd still say go for it because it's a good way in to make contacts, start working, and you will work on some interesting shows where ever you are based. There's all sorts of people in the workplace but pretty much everywhere there's nice folk.

Courseworks all online. I did it at my pace. Its like powerpoints and not very challenging. From workplace point of view there's no curriculum like school, you just learn stuff as it naturally comes up - like if a show with a revolving stage comes in to the venue, I then might ask questions and find out about that.

Could be a lot better. They was good to me at times and other times I feel I've been treated quite bad, by the people in Hr not my direct line manager. They treat apprentices in other venues different for stuff like tools and experiences- like someone else on my course had no tools bought for them but the employer bought me and another apprentice loads of kit. I had to politely argue my case over other basic things and that can be [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] when on [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] money and working hard. That said my old colleagues have become friends and from them I got good support.

He was avaliable by email and video call and when I did the exam he came to my work and went through it all with me. They were decent.

I learnt about history of theatre, rules and regulations, electricity phases, and that is useful cos it gives me background knowledge to the job. The qualification itself doesn't mean much in the industry but people respect doing an apprenticeship instead of a degree.

They do stuff like bake sales, staff birthdays and we got away days doing mini golf and adventure parks in one venue. Kinda depends where you are. Good question to ask at the end of an interview !

No

I dont wanna put anyone off cos its not been awful. But it also had me thinking about leaving a bunch of times. To be honest the moneys is [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] for the hours and amount of hard work you do. That dont matter so much if you are really learning and getting somewhere. But I came out of it looking at similar jobs to what I was before I started, and I felt very unvalued and unskilled in one venue I was in. My friend who also did the apprenticeship is a farmer now. Another friend who did it is a Senior Technician in a well known venue with Atg, and another is doing well as freelance lighting designer. Give it a try if they offer it to you. I had really good times in the job and had fun and also had some times where I was doing hard [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] work and couldve been making more with less stress working the till at tesco. But it is interesting so there you go. See for yourself, you might love it

Be yourself, you dont need to know everything, ask questions, be friendly, try stuff in any practicals they give you. If you dont get offered it, it's hard not to feel bad but dont take it personally - I interview people myself in my current job and people get turned down just for random not personal reasons, it absolutely does not mean you are disliked or that you cant be a great theatre technician. Stick at it. There's other good companies like Royal Opera House, National Theatre, and independent theatres in major cities Manchester Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin and all over that take apprentices. If you do get an offer from Atg, good for you, give it a go now u know the bad bits and the good bits