Breakthrough Traineeship – Communications and Digital Assistant, Eastbourne
About Breakthrough
Breakthrough is a 6‑month employability programme designed as a stepping stone to get you workplace experience and all-important employment skills. This short placement gives you insight into a future career in the Creative Industry, supporting your confidence and professionalism in the workplace, and helping you to break through into a career that matters to you!
Read more about Breakthrough here:
The role
This is an opportunity to understand and contribute towards the working of a nationally renowned gallery. Working alongside experienced arts professionals you will support with a variety of aspects of our programming, both visitor-facing and behind the scenes in our Marketing Team.
You will develop a broad range of skills covering gallery operations and public facing work with our Front of House Team, alongside digital communications, administration and archiving of our website.
This role will include:
- Working alongside our Visitor Services team as they support visitors to have a memorable experience of Towner, developing the skills you need for future public facing roles.
- Working as part of Towner’s busy Marketing & Communications department, who oversee marketing, press, audience development and digital including our website and social media. Towner’s Marketing & Communications team are passionate about embedding accessible language into the way we talk about Towner and creating content to speak to our audiences directly, recognising that these audiences vary across our eclectic programme, which includes exhibitions, cinema, talks, tours, lates and family events.
After initially training with our Visitor Services team you will join the team for regular shifts each week. Once you are settled, we will then introduce you to our office-based colleagues, with whom you will begin working on digital administration and contributing to the work of our Marketing Team.
The digital aspect of this role will mainly focus on digital administration and archiving as part of a large project to launch a new website and refreshed brand incorporating our forthcoming second site Towner Seven Sisters. There will also be opportunities to feed into and shape this major digital project.
Tasks will include :
- Gathering, filing and tidying content from our current website
- Write-ups and image selection for web pages
- Sourcing and resizing images and logos
- Learning correct image crediting procedure and implementing it across file systems
- Proof-reading and editing copy
There will also be opportunities to support with other tasks across the department which might include:
- Photography and photo editing
- Designing content within our brand guidelines, using Canva Pro or Adobe Creative Suite
- Collecting and analysing audience data, i.e. through conducting visitor surveys
- Sharing images and information with relevant organisations
- Helping to gather content for newsletters or proof-reading existing content
The role will based at Towner Eastbourne, which is in Devonshire Quarter, with some scope for working remotely if this suits you, when not working in your Front of House role.
Who we are:
Collecting and exhibiting contemporary art for 100 years, Towner Eastbourne sits where the coast and the South Downs meet. Towner presents exhibitions of national and international importance for audiences in Eastbourne, the UK, and beyond, showcasing the most exciting and creative developments in modern and contemporary art. Towner is now in the early stages of managing the care of Eastbourne’s varied Heritage Collection and is preparing for expansion onto a nearby farm site at Beachy Head.
Towner is a free resource for the local and wider community. With a Learning Team who work closely to support local school, college and other visits, and with artists to offer new and engaging ways of exploring creativity. We deliver a programme of events for all ages, gallery engagement resources and skills development for those looking to experience work in the creative industries.
Our team is welcoming and friendly, committed to sharing our skills and experience.
Deadline for applications
The deadline is 11:45pm, on 27 July 2026
You will need to download the job description below and read it carefully, and review the eligibility criteria below to ensure you are able to apply.
You then need to fill out the form below to submit your application.
All of the job descriptions include an “Employers advice” section and we strongly recommend that you tailor your answers to ensure they cover that advice given for the specific role you are applying for.
You can apply for more than one role if you wish to, but you will need to submit separate applications using the same process.
We strongly suggest that you research travel options for the role before applying to ensure travel is feasible.
To be eligible to apply for a Breakthrough traineeship, applicants must:
- Be aged 18-25 on the 28 September 2026
- Have the right to work in the UK
- Available to start work on the 28 September 2026 and available for the duration of the placement (until 28th March 2027)
- Have no or little (less than one month) previous experience of working in an arts, creative or voluntary sector organisation
In addition to the above, applicants should also meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Currently not in employment, education or training (NEET)
- Be disabled and/or Neurodivergent
- Have current or prior mental health issues
- Have experienced racism, homophobic or transgender discrimination
- Be a recent school or college leaver (A level or equivalent)
- Are struggling to find work due to lack of employment or training experience
Please note that this programme is not suitable for those on a degree placement year or an MA programme.
Download the full job description
This contains more information about the role, including advice from the employer.
Breakthrough 2026 Application Form
Contact us
If you are unsure if you are eligible, have any other questions, or need information in a different format, please email our Careers team:
FAQs
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If you have applied for a Breakthrough placement in a previous year and been unsuccessful, then yes you are very welcome to apply again if you meet this years eligibility criteria!
If you have already successfully undertaken a Breakthrough placement before, you won't be eligible to apply again.
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Please do. You will need to submit an application for each role you are interested in and should check that the travel to the workplace is realistic for you before applying.