Five questions with... Lincoln Arts Centre

We spoke to Ben Anderson, Creative and Executive Director at Lincoln Arts Centre. He told us about their innovative new Routes In Scheme, which has been developed to improve skills and kick-start careers in the creative industries.

30 November 2023

Photo of Lincoln Arts Centre at the University of Lincoln

Tell us more about the Routes In scheme?

The scheme aims is to provide a first step on the ladder to a creative career, whilst helping us to retain more talent in Lincoln, and diversify our workforce.

We’ve created two new entry-level job opportunities; Technical Assistant and Digital Marketing Assistant. Alongside the University’s People, Performance and Culture Department, we’ve worked hard to ensure a fully inclusive recruitment process. To do this we’ve:

Dismantled and interrogated processes and barriers such as industry specific language.
Developed new approaches, such as job guides.
Tried different modes of information sharing such as Instagram lives.
Worked directly with charity partners.
Discovered alternatives to competency-based interviews and shortlisting questions.
Advertised the roles together, focusing on shared learning and the place of work, rather than specific role requirements.
Allowed a longer advertising period.

The two selected candidates will work with us for the next year alongside secondments to cultural partners across the city.

Picture of Ben Anderson standing outside Lincoln Arts Centre — Ben Anderson, Creative & Executive Director at Lincoln Arts Centre

How did the recruitment process go?

There was a huge amount of interest in the roles. Our innovations to the recruitment process led to some extraordinary outcomes.

A record of 212 people applied for the scheme, with a further 134 starting an application. Sixty candidates were of a BAME background, thirty applicants had a disability and seventy-one applicants identified within the LGBTQIA+ community. It was the most diverse pool of applicants that the Arts Centre has ever attracted.

Since the process, key learnings on inclusive recruitment continue to be applied across the University of Lincoln.

Routes In employee, Alexandra Bradbury, standing outside the Lincoln Arts Centre — Lincoln Arts Centre Routes In employee, Alexandra Bradbury

How do you hope the successful candidates will benefit from their involvement in the project?

I hope they’ll gain confidence, develop skills and collect experiences that will help them in their next step. That could be university, a job interview, an important speech, a tricky challenge or a big dream.

I hope they’ll have a life changing experience - the kind of experience I had as a paid intern at the beginning of my career, which set me on a trajectory.

But alongside this, I hope that we can learn from the two candidates and that they inform our organisational practice.

For me, success would be for these two people to be able to build and sustain a career in the arts in Lincolnshire. I also hope that we’ll be able to point to policies, procedures or practices that have evolved and improved because of the Routes In roles.

Image of Mohammad Abuzar, Routes In staff member at Lincoln Arts Centre, pictures standing in front of a bright green background — Successful Lincoln Arts Centre Routes In Scheme applicant, Mohammad Abuzar

Why do you think this type of scheme is so important for the industry?

It’s vital that our industry is reflective of society. We are the storytellers. Through our stories, we help people make sense of the world. Therefore it’s crucial that pathways are available for diverse talent. We need to make sure that the stories we curate are represent, and speak to, everyone in society.

For us as an organisation, the scheme’s helped us test new approaches to inclusive recruitment. It’s already starting to shape our organisational practice. I hope we’ll continue to be challenged with care and kindness so that we can deeply connect to our work ethos, be constantly curious about change and boldly hopeful about our ability to re-think our relationships, our behaviours, and our connections.

We’ve recruited two exceptional new members of our workforce who’ll provide support as we grow our creative programme. Our Routes In colleagues will also be seconded to other organisations, giving us all a great opportunity for shared learning.

What are your future hopes and ambitions for the programme?

I hope we can build on the success of the first iteration of the programme. There’s a clear and demonstrable need for entry level routes into the industry, a first step on the ladder and a foot in the door. Now that we’ve been able to open that door, and the outcomes have been so positive, it’s important that we continue to do it each year. With that in mind, we’ll be reaching out to potential sponsors to make this programme sustainable in the long run.