A charity with a mission to make the creative industries more accessible and socially diverse through valuable work experience, skills training and career guidance.
We’ve delivered over 15,000 hours of creative careers work experience and have provided free skills training to more than 600 young people in Stoke & Staffordshire.
We are the proud recipient of Marketing Week and the Advertising Association’s ‘Talent Trailblazer Award’, celebrating organisations opening up the creative industries to diverse new talent.
Latest News
Year 6 Skills Programme
We have teamed up with local Year 6 pupils to bring to life a challenge set by Lord Mayor Lyn Sharpe: “To get more families to celebrate Stoke’s Centenary!” The students worked hard to develop exciting advertising ideas. Read more here
Another Award!
VCCP has won Campaign’s Integrated Marketing Agency of the Year! We are so proud that our work as a charity was recognised as one of the contributing factors for the award. The judges said: “It was so interesting to read how The Challenger Academy is having such an impact on Stoke and the local community.” Read more here.
Congrats NSCG Stafford!
In March, NSCG Stafford were crowned the winners of the 2024/25 Intercity Student Challenge. Thank you to our partner Alton Towers and well done to all of the students who participated from Stoke-on-Trent College, Stoke Sixth Form College, NSCG Newcastle & Stafford. Read more here.
TCA Receives National Lottery Funding
We’re thrilled to have been awarded funding by The National Lottery Community Fund! This money will support our Future Skills Project, developing teaching resources for local Primary & Secondary schools to introduce students to the creative industries at a young age. We are so grateful for funders like The National Lottery who understand the importance of developing pupils’ skills in the creative sector.
TCA Partners with LADbible!
We are delighted to announce our partnership with LADbible Group for the 2025 ‘Best Summer Job Ever’ internship. With their generous support, we can now offer 4 additional paid placements, as well as visits to their London and Manchester offices. Read more at LBB Online.
Apply Now for the ‘Best Summer Job Ever’ 2025!
Ever wondered how Virgin Media got a goat on a hand glider? Or a highland cow on a motorbike? This is your chance to get an insight into the world of advertising & communications. This 4-week summer internship in Stoke will teach you how to create your own creative campaigns for some of VCCP’s flagship clients. Click to learn more.
Intercity Student Challenge Semi-Finals
In December, VCCP mentors and members of the Alton Towers marketing team helped judge the semi-finals of the Intercity Student Challenge! 4 local sixth form colleges spent 8 weeks working in teams to create an advert for Alton Towers. The competition was fierce but 4 talented teams will now advance to the finals!
We are now The Challenger Academy!
VCCP Stoke Academy is now The Challenger Academy. The new name embodies the spirit of the young people we support: they are resilient, creative, and ready to challenge the status quo. Our mission remains the same and we are still based in the great city of Stoke-on-Trent. Read more here
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Christmas Cards Fundraiser
This year, a team of amazing VCCP designers (2 from Stoke!) have created festive Christmas cards to raise money for us. Every penny raised will be an investment in reaching more local young people with our work experience programmes and breaking down more barriers. Click to order yours now!
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Intercity Student Challenge 2024/2025
In October, we kicked off our 4th Intercity Student Challenge, an 8-week work experience programme for sixth form students in Stoke and North Staffordshire, that provides them with an intro to advertising. Our fantastic partner Alton Towers is back to support the students, be part of the judging panel and provide some exciting prizes! Read more here.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Social Media Strategy Workshop
As part of our 2024 commitment to increase our skills training workshops, in September we hosted a 2-day Social Media Strategy workshop where students got to learn how to create a strategy for a brand and present their ideas to a real client, local charity Stoke Film Theatre. Follow us on our social media channels for info on upcoming workshops!
VCCP Stoke Academy News
‘Student Interns have Designs on Creative Careers’
Staffordshire University has published an article featuring our ‘Best Summer Job Ever’ internship and highlights the positive impact creative career work experience has had on their students. Read more here.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Creative Salon Visits our Interns!
On 12th July 2024, Creative Salon attended the final day of our Best Summer Job Ever and interviewed our interns, as well as our our co-founder and Executive Creative Director, Jim Thornton to discuss how we’re supporting young people to discover creative careers. Read more here.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Meet Naomi!
Join us in welcoming our newest member of the VCCP Stoke Academy team! Naomi is our Schools Outreach and Programme Manager, who will be instrumental in helping us scale our programmes, develop additional skills training opportunities, and inspire even more young people in Stoke to consider a career in the creative industry. Read more about Naomi by clicking here.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Welcome 2024 “Best Summer Job Ever” Interns!
On 17th June, we welcomed 8 talented young people from all around Staffordshire, to our VCCP Stoke office. Over the next 4 weeks, they’ll be working on brand briefs, learning valuable career skills and understanding the many diverse roles that make up an advertising agency.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Creative Salon on our partnership with Canon & Alight Media
Stunning images produced by students during our workshops with 2 local colleges have been chosen to feature in a “virtual photography exhibition” on billboards around Stoke. Read the story here.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
2023/24 Intercity Student Challenge Finale
In March, we held the finals for the Intercity Student Challenge, an 8-week work experience programme with 4x participating local colleges. It was difficult to choose a winner but team Atty Batty from Stoke 6th Form College took the top prize! Read more here.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Apply now for the ‘Best Summer Job Ever’ 2024!
Ever wondered how Virgin Media got a goat on a hand glider? Or a highland cow on a motorbike? Our paid 4-week summer internship is your chance to get an insight into the world of advertising & communications. Click here to apply!
VCCP Stoke Academy News
2023/24 Intercity Student Challenge Semi-Finals
Over the past 8 weeks, our VCCP employee volunteers have been mentoring the brilliant students from 4 local colleges in Staffordshire to create a mock advert for Alton Towers. We recently held the semi-finals and the student’s work didn’t disappoint! Read more here.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Canon Workshops in Stoke
In November 2023, VCCP Stoke Academy collaborated with Canon to help deliver their Young People Programme in Stoke. Full-day photography workshops were held with students from Stoke Sixth Form College and Stoke-on-Trent College. Read more about this fantastic programme here.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
The Talent Trailblazer Award!
Marketing Week, in partnership with the Advertising Association, have awarded us with the Talent Trailblazer Award, celebrating the organisations and individuals opening the industry up to diverse new talent. We are so honoured! Read the full article here.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
2023/24 Intercity Student Challenge
This year’s Intercity Student Challenge has officially begun! Find out more about our 8-week work experience programme aimed to provide sixth form students in Staffordshire with an introduction to the world of advertising and creative agencies…
VCCP Stoke Academy News
We’ve Been Featured in Creative Salon!
Our 2023 Best Summer Job Ever has been featured in Creative Salon! Read what our interns got up to this summer as they explored the world of advertising and creativity…
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Keele University Student Consulting
We are excited to be working with 2 talented Masters students this summer from Keele University’s Business School, Febia and Madhusudan. They’ll be consulting on 2 separate projects using a mixture of theory and research to solve business dilemmas. You can learn more about their projects here!
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Welcome 2023 Interns!
On 26th June, we kicked off our ‘Best Summer Job Ever’ and welcomed 8 talented interns from Staffordshire Uni. Over the next 4 weeks, they’ll get experience working on projects for some of our flagship clients. Click here for updates along their journey!
VCCP Stoke Academy News
New Student Work!
Alex Paterson from Staffordshire University was the winner of the Made in Stoke design challenge. The team at VCCP worked with him and other graphic design students to provide advice and guidance on this live brief, to recreate the Made in Stoke logo. Click here to check out his winning design!
VCCP Stoke Academy News
Made in Stoke Logo Challenge
Staffs University design students competed to create a new logo for Made in Stoke, a network for people with links to Stoke and the surrounding area. VCCP’s Head of Art provided feedback sessions for the students and while entries were strong, Alex Paterson (far left) was the winner! Watch this space for his winning design…
VCCP Stoke Academy News
NSCG Stafford wins our 2022/23 Intercity Sixth Form Challenge
Students from across Staffordshire participated in our second ever Intercity Sixth Form Challenge where they were given a client brief by ArtUK to create an ad campaign based on their Art Tagger online tool. Check out photos from our finale held at NSCG Newcastle on 2nd March.
VCCP Stoke News
VCCP Stoke Academy Featured on ITV News Central
Our Co-Founder Michael Lee, Apprentice Emily Dunn and VCCP Stoke Academy Trustee Mark Gregory spoke to ITV Central about VCCP’s new research showing the challenge faced by the ad industry in recruiting a more socially diverse workforce. Click to watch the full interview.
VCCP Stoke News
New Research from VCCP & APG Reveals the Challenges Facing the Industry in Recruiting More Socially Diverse Talent
Two significant pieces of new research published today by VCCP Group and the APG reveals that an “insider culture” is making careers in advertising feel inaccessible to young people from across the UK. Click here to read more about the research.
VCCP Stoke Academy News
2022/23 Intercity Sixth Form Challenge Finale
Students from NSCG Stafford, NSCG Newcastle and Stoke 6th Form College competed to design a mock easyJet campaign. NSCG Stafford came out on top but we were blown away by all of the ideas!
VCCP Stoke Academy News
VCCP Academy Welcomes 2022 Summer Interns
On 22 June, we kicked off our first summer internship with 8 Staffs Uni students. Over 4 weeks they will gain ad agency experience and skills to improve their prospects of employment.
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