We are thrilled to announce the recruitment of our most recent apprentice, Santino Petrosillo, who will be undertaking his Creative & Digital Media apprenticeship with us at Real SFX for the upcoming year.
Carmela Carrubba, Real SFX co-founder and training director has said: “Wales has become firmly established as a creative media hub and Real SFX has been privileged enough to be a part of this by producing special effects for many well-known productions.
“We decided to integrate an apprenticeship programme into our recruitment process which has enabled us to actively source enthusiastic new talent from Wales. Through apprenticeship programmes and by upskilling the local workforce, we are ensuring that Wales has a pool of talent to rival any other country in the world.
“We work with local people to develop a specialist skills industry that is based in Wales but serves the rest of the UK. The staff we have employed all have the opportunity to develop their skills, progress with us and work up to senior level.”
The company employs eight permanent staff in total. Over the past four years the success of this programme has led to the company to recruit four apprentices including its very first female apprentice SFX technician last year.
Carmela added, “We’ve had fantastic support from the Welsh Government, Cyfle and Creative Skillset Cymru to recruit apprentices who can gain further qualifications with us. Recruitment in the special effects field can be extremely difficult as there is a real lack of qualified specialists in Wales. The apprenticeship programme provides the ideal platform for us to recruit new staff and teach them the skills they need to pursue a successful career in the SFX industry.
“All of the staff recruited through the apprenticeship programme have remained with the company and, as the business and creative industry sector continues to grow, we plan to gradually increase the number of apprenticeship opportunities within our business.”
We wish Santino all the best with his apprenticeship with us and look forward to showing him the ropes!