“You could probably fit a jumbo jet in here… and it’s taller than four double-decker buses,” says Gary Briggs, director of training and skills at Factory Academy, as he gestures across one of the vast studio spaces called The Warehouse inside Aviva Studios.
Even in hushed tones, so as not to disturb a group of eager students sitting just a few feet away who are engrossed in a lesson on event production, the scale of what could arguably be described as one of the North’s “biggest classrooms” is undeniable.
Operated by arts organisation Factory International, Aviva Studios has quickly become a hive of creative activity since the £242m venue first opened its doors.
Built on the site of the former Granada TV studios, it now hosts everything from gigs (I was standing in the same room just a few days ago to watch My Bloody Valentine perform live) to Manchester International Festival events and Marina Abramović’s recent Balkan Erotic Epic.
But Aviva Studios is more than a stage for those headline-grabbing shows. By day, it opens the doors of the creative industries to those who have long been shut out.
It is home to Factory Academy, an initiative first launched by the arts organisation in 2018 to create pathways into creative careers, particularly for people from underrepresented backgrounds, through targeted training and development programmes.
‘It helped me out of poverty’
Factory Academy offers a range of free training programmes, including part-time courses designed to develop the next generation of early-career music promoters and creatives, all co-created with industry experts.
While many courses take place in The Lab, the Academy’s purpose-built training suite that we also take a glimpse inside at, part of today’s activity is happening in The Warehouse.
The trainees we spotted earlier are taking part in a hands-on session called Event Ready, where they’re learning the fundamentals of sound, lighting, and event production. Aiming to become the next wave of live event and performance tech talent, they are developing these skills in the very space built for the events they hope to work on one day.
And who better to drive that activity forward than the creatives who have lived it themselves? Factory Academy’s programmes are led by people who appear to have a genuine passion for supporting underrepresented talent, including Gary Briggs, who is currently steering the ship.
Briggs’ own experiences make it clear why he is determined to create opportunities many emerging creatives have had to fight for, ensuring that people across Greater Manchester today receive the access and support they deserve.
“Music brought me to Manchester in 1999, I moved from Cornwall to the city to get a record deal and I was lucky enough for that to happen,” Briggs tells me, reflecting on his own career.
Landing in Manchester as the lead singer of indie rock band Haven, he arrived at a moment when the city’s music scene was thriving.
“Moving here was like sitting with the bright kids. We were playing in pubs and bars in Cornwall, then when we moved to Manchester, you had bands like Doves emerging alongside Badly Drawn Boy and Elbow. Night and Day was an incredible space, and the Northern Quarter was just developing,” he explains.
“In many ways, it was what helped me out of poverty and I got to travel. That was the point where I realised just how important arts and culture are and how they can really provide pathways for people that otherwise wouldn’t exist.”
A few years later, after working in further education, Briggs developed a traineeship programme that laid the groundwork for Factory Academy’s first project, creating five creative venue technician apprenticeships. “That gave us the blueprint for how Factory Academy works today,” he explains.
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After being made redundant, an opportunity opened up at Factory International, where he soon began leading a training programme called Factory Futures, even as the organisation was rethinking how it operated.
“There’s so much incredible work in the arts, but we’re often trapped in a project mindset. You secure funding, deliver an impactful programme, then after the evaluation you may never get the chance to run it again.”
The solution was to partner with colleges across Greater Manchester to “unlock” education funding, helping Factory Academy to run its courses while remaining accessible.
“We want to create clear pathways to creative jobs and to break down the barriers that people often face when accessing these opportunities. It’s the gatekept knowledge — the stuff you usually need a network for to access — that holds many back. What we try to do is make that information as easy as possible to find, so people can take their first steps.”
‘It’s a big stumbling block’
Despite the progress made over the years, Briggs says the biggest barrier for people from underrepresented backgrounds who want to enter the creative industries is a ‘lack of awareness.’
“You have overstretched schools and, in some cases, colleges where careers advisers don’t have the specialists who really understand the scale of the roles,” he explains.
“It’s awareness of the opportunities and access to networks. It still costs money to go to gigs, to go to events or shows, and often these are the ways people build those networks. That is a big stumbling block. If you’re hustling a bar job and choosing between heating and food, the idea of going to college or joining a skills programme might not even make the list.”
For that reason, Factory Academy’s courses are free, offering bursaries, food support, and travel allowances. The mission is clear: to remove as many barriers as possible to open up creative careers.
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Collaboration has also become central to the Academy’s model. For years, it convened a consortium of cultural organisations from HOME, The Halle to The Lowry, Bolton Octagon, and Oldham Coliseum. Recently, this expanded to include creative businesses such as Pulse Films and Versa Studios.
“We’re trying to understand exactly what these organisations need. Who are they not seeing? Who’s missing from the conversation? Then we build programmes that respond to those wants and needs. The programmes we create are condensed versions of what you might study over two years in college. Straight away, that makes it more financially accessible, but we’re also making sure we are bringing industry into that space.”
‘There’s so much more work to do’
Most of the Factory Academy team came through various programmes themselves. According to a recent impact report, over 1,000 Greater Manchester residents took part in Academy activity in the last year, 94% identified as underrepresented, while 63% moved into paid work.
“The average is around 54% over the past five years. We’re really proud of last year’s figures, and we want to keep building on that. We’re moving in the right direction. It feels like momentum,” says Briggs.
One person who knows the impact first-hand is Kayleigh McGann, now a coordinator at Factory Academy. She first joined the Managing Creative Projects course to support her grassroots DJ event ideas in Manchester.
“I’ve always been interested in the creative industries, but I never knew what I wanted to do,” she explains. For two days a week across nine weeks, she learned how to plan, budget, and pitch creative projects, eventually transforming her DJ ideas into workshops for women and non-binary people, backed by radio partnerships.
“Being in the building and learning from people who work here made it so accessible. Those feelings about the creative industry being gatekept just disappeared as we were taught so much about the different avenues to take your idea.
“Almost everyone from this course is from an area of Greater Manchester that is more deprived. By the end of the course, you have almost everything you need to take your idea out there.”
After completing the course, trainees stay connected through a fortnightly newsletter filled with job opportunities, events, and roles across Greater Manchester.
“We really try to make it a little ecosystem. That’s exactly how I ended up working here,” she explains.
“I always wanted to help people on these courses, especially as someone working class from Greater Manchester. If I hadn’t done the course, my events would probably have died out. There are so many people in Greater Manchester who don’t act on their passions or see them as viable careers.”
Factory Academy continues to run events and initiatives to connect underrepresented creatives with employers. And Briggs hopes the model can spark wider change.
“I’d love the work we do to become a catalyst across the UK,” he says. “There’s so much goodwill and energy in places like the North East, London, and Cornwall to challenge barriers facing working-class people. What’s missing is connectivity and we need to create these networks.”
He imagines a future where Manchester International Festival is run by Academy graduates too: “I would love to see the day when all of the stages are crewed, managed, and programmed by Factory Academy graduates. But I think we can inspire other parts of the country to adopt a similar approach. There’s so much more work to do.”
