Breakthrough Traineeship – Creative Development Producer (Junior), Slough
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
You will work directly with Leo’s Circus founder, Alex Leo, across two distinct phases:
The first focused on growing the organisation through fundraising, partnerships, and corporate opportunities;
The second, focused on the hands-on logistics of running our Easter holiday camps. You will leave with experience that spans grant writing support, corporate outreach, programme coordination, impact reporting, and community arts administration; a genuinely broad foundation for a career in the creative sector.
The role will include assisting with:
- Fundraising research
- Contributing to and maintaining the grants calendar
- Supporting funding applications and grant submissions
- Developing our corporate team-building offer, including researching opportunities, building relationships with organisations, and helping to secure corporate bookings
- Compiling impact data and case studies
- Communicating with clients, participants, funders, and partners
- Assisting with the design and coordination of administrative processes
- Supporting holiday camp logistics, including venue bookings, scheduling, registers, and equipment management
- Designing and sending participant information packs
- Supporting monitoring, evaluation, and reporting activities
Who we are:
Leo’s Circus C.I.C. is a fast-growing social enterprise delivering circus and performing arts programmes to children and young people in some of the UK’s most underserved communities. We operate across London and the South East — in Ealing, Wandsworth, Slough, and High Wycombe — running HAF-funded holiday camps, school workshops, artist development programmes, and live performances that have reached 6,000+ young people across 1,000+ sessions.
We are a small, ambitious team with big plans. We have raised £100,000+ in public funding, produced a flagship show with audiences exceeding 1,000 people, and built a progression pathway that takes young people from first-time participant to paid coach. This role is an opportunity to get in early and help us grow.
Leo’s Circus is committed to equal opportunities and encourages applications from young people from underrepresented backgrounds, including those from low-income families, Black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities, and those who have faced barriers to entering the creative industries.
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.