Bloomsbury partners with Get into Publishing to attract regional talent

Bloomsbury is partnering with Get into Publishing to fund training courses aimed at attracting workers based outside London.

Get into Publishing focuses on rolling out affordable and accessible training to support newcomers looking to work in the publishing industry.

The partnership will sponsor a select number of course places. The criteria for the Bloomsbury-funded positions will consider the applicants’ location in order to attract a more diverse range of talent to the publishing industry from outside London and the South East.

According to the Publishers Association diversity survey of the publishing workforce in 2020, the majority are from the south of England, with 75% of respondents living in South East England or London. Just 2% of respondents were from all other nations in the UK or regions north of London. As a result, Bloomsbury has specified criteria to widen the regional profile of the current workforce to attract workers that may not have considered work opportunities in the capital previously.

The training programmes are aimed at those who have little or no prior knowledge of the publishing industry, and there are no entry requirements other than a passion and enthusiasm for reading and literature. There are a range of courses available over a series of days throughout the year. The course topics range from an intensive three-day overview of the industry, to developing fundamental core skills in editing, production and marketing, which will improve their chances of employment.

Lisa Goll, events and corporate partnerships manager at Bloomsbury, said: “We wish to open up the publishing industry to anyone that has an interest in this world. Career opportunities can often seem few and far between when you’re just starting out, and this is particularly true for the publishing industry, where many offices are based in London. This already limits options for many potential applicants, and we are keen to help break down these industry-wide barriers. By setting out our applicant criteria, we hope to attract a diverse range of talent from across the UK, outside London in particular, and irrespective of educational and financial background.”

Heather O’Connell from Get into Publishing added: "We’re so pleased to have this support from Bloomsbury. Their funding will help us to provide more training and access to the industry for those from outside the South East and increase regional diversity."

The upcoming courses with sponsored places on offer are an introduction to editorial on 12th June, introduction to production on 19th June, introduction to publishing from 31st August-3rd September, transferable skills for publishing from 9th-10th October and an introduction to book marketing on 23rd October.