Prime Minister Gordon Brown has launched a £600,000 scheme designed to help hard-up arts graduates make it in the tough world of showbusiness.
The Creative Bursaries Scheme will help 40 arts graduates from working class backgrounds secure internships in the music, acting, dance, art and front-of-house sections of the industry, with participants receiving a stipend for their troubles.
Mr Brown said: "We are rightly proud of the huge amount of talent and creativity that exists in the arts in the UK.
"This funding will help give some of our gifted young artists the extra support and valuable experience they need to get a foot in the door of our creative industries and help them on their way to realising their full potential.
"It is a vital boost for some of our great future actors, artists and musicians who may otherwise have slipped through the net."
The bursaries, unveiled alongside youngsters from the cast of Billy Elliot at a No 10 reception to mark the musical's fifth birthday, will be run in partnership with arts charity the Jerwood Foundation and will last for up to a year, starting in September.
