TheWRD from The Ivors Academy Education

from The Ivors 2023

The Ivors 2023 The Ivors Academy wishes to thank

There’s always a lot to celebrate at The Ivors, but this year’s ceremony will also serve as the first birthday party for The Ivors Academy’s further education programme TheWRD.

Launched at last year’s Ivors, TheWRD offers people the chance of building a career in the music industry via a two-year diploma in Creative Entrepreneurship. And, with its combination of remote learning and field trips, plus the provision of bursaries for those ineligible for state funding and unable to pay themselves, it’s offering access to the industry for many who might otherwise miss out.

“There are people doing great work in the education space, but there are gaps,” says Ian Mack, co-founder and CEO of TheWRD. “And that’s what TheWRD is trying to do; fill those gaps and provide an alternative pathway for people that traditional education might be leaving behind.”

It does that via Mack’s magic formula of “industry leaders, expert educators and cool tech”, with the course’s partners including heavyweights such as Warner Music, Reservoir and Beggar’s Group.

Access to real industry professionals is one of the key attractions for current TheWRD students such as Andy Skinner and Hillary Juma, who have enjoyed field trips to companies such as Spotify and Milk & Honey.

“It’s called the music business, but so many people don’t think about the business, only the music,” says Skinner, a songwriter from Bangor, Northern Ireland. “There’s a whole other skillset that you don’t get on some courses. If more people come through with that business knowledge and the work ethic they’re instilling into our crew, it can only get better.”

Aspiring London-based artist Juma praises the hands-on experience the course offers, having played her first proper gig as part of an assignment that involved putting on a concert.

“It’s really helped me to discover the vision I want for myself as an artist and the career path I want to go down,” she says.

Mack says the course, which took its first full intake in September after a pilot, has attracted a diverse range of students, with an equal gender split plus a wider age range and higher-than-average percentages of people from ethnic minority and neurodiverse students than traditional universities. The remote, part-time learning approach has attracted students from all over the United Kingdom and – notes Andy Skinner, who has a condition called spondyloarthritis – helps make learning easier for students with disabilities. And, with the music industry still struggling to achieve true diversity, Mack hopes TheWRD will help provide a crucial talent pipeline.

“By getting this diverse talent in front of the industry and making them visible, they become valuable,” he says. “We never promise that we’re going to get somebody a job, but we will get them in the room and we do that from day one.”

Mack stresses that TheWRD is “selling reality, not a dream”, but both students and teachers have big ambitions for the future.

Hillary Juma says the course has given her confidence that she can become “financially sustainable as an independent artist and grow a fanbase that will engage with my art”. As well as his own music, Andy Skinner hopes to work in events organisation and promotion, with a focus on accessibility.

Ian Mack, meanwhile, insists the sky is the limit for what TheWRD can achieve.

“We’ve got a big dream to, in the next decade, provide 10,000 people with free education,” he grins. “When I said that a few years ago, people thought I was mad. But now, [the response] is not ‘Are you crazy?’ it’s ‘Good, how can we help you?’ We’ve got people who are as mad as I am on board now!”

And, with their globally available kickstarter course launching at this year’s Ivors, it should make for one hell of a birthday party for TheWRD – with many, many more to come.

Currently, every student on TheWRD is an Ivor Novello Scholar on a funded place. The Ivors Academy Trust thanks all of TheWRD’s industry partners who have kindly donated to the scholarship fund.

SONY MUSIC PUBLISHING CONGRATULATES ALL OUR SONGWRITERS & COMPOSERS RECOGNISED AT THE 2023 IVOR NOVELLO AWARDS

NOMINATION: BARNEY LISTER (Promised Land Music)

Best Album

Some Nights I Dream of Doors by Obonjayar

NOMINATION: ALEX TURNER

Best Album

The Car by Arctic Monkeys

NOMINATION: 070 SHAKE

Best Contemporary Song

Escapism by RAYE & 070 Shake

NOMINATION: MIKE SABATH

Best Contemporary Song

Escapism by RAYE & 070 Shake

NOMINATION: JACK ANTONOFF (Ducky Donath Music)

Best Song Musically and Lyrically

King by Florence + The Machine

NOMINATION: FRED (Promised Land Music)