Trainee producer

Closing date for applications: Thursday 5 November 2026 at 4pm

Location: Leeds, Mafwa office, community venues and some home working

Salary: £26,227.50 per annum, pro rata
Hours: 3 days per week, 9am - 5pm
Contract: 12-week fixed term, January - April 2027
Interviews: 26 November 2026

This paid traineeship offers the chance to learn about arts production while supporting events that bring refugee, asylum-seeking and settled communities together.

Through theatre and art, Good Chance creates new kinds of communities, collaborating with artists from across the world and connecting people, stories and cultures.

Mafwa Theatre and Good Chance are partnering to offer an exciting new Producer traineeship opportunity for someone with experience of forced displacement to join the Mafwa Theatre team for 12 weeks. The role will primarily support the planning and production of our Refugee Week 2027 programme. The trainee will support Mafwa's Refugee Week programme and gain practical experience across other community arts projects and the day-to-day work of a small arts organisation.

The role is designed as a learning opportunity. The trainee will work alongside and be supported by the wider Mafwa team while gaining hands-on experience in production management, project coordination and arts administration.

Refugee Week is an important part of Mafwa's annual programme, bringing refugee, asylum-seeking and settled communities together through arts, performance and community celebration. Our previous programmes have included performances, family activities, workshops, community talent sharing and celebration events. For Refugee Week 2027 (14–20 June), Mafwa is developing its programme further. Subject to funding and consultation, this may include Walk with Us, a large-scale city-centre walk/parade bringing community groups together through banners, performance and creative activities. Alongside this, we expect to deliver community-based Refugee Week activities. The Trainee Producer will support this programme of events.

The Trainee Producer role is part of Stage Door 11, a partnership with Good Chance. Stage Door is Good Chance Theatre’s flagship artist development programme dedicated to creating bespoke paid employment opportunities for creatives from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds. The programme celebrates and nurtures creative industry professionals while addressing the imbalance of opportunities available to people who have been displaced.

Key responsibilities

The Trainee Producer will:

• Support the planning and delivery of Refugee Week 2027 and other Mafwa projects.
• Help coordinate communication between artists, community groups, partners, venues, contractors and other stakeholders.
• Support event logistics, schedules, bookings and practical arrangements.
• Assist with permissions, risk assessments, access planning and other production documentation.
• Support the coordination of workshops, rehearsals, community activities and public events.
• Assist with participant and volunteer coordination where required.
• Support project monitoring, evaluation and record keeping.
• Undertake project administration, filing and general office administration.
• Attend project and partner meetings and support follow-up actions.
• Work collaboratively with Mafwa staff, freelancers, volunteers and community participants
• Carry out other reasonable project and administrative duties appropriate to a trainee role.

Essential and Desirable Criteria

As this is a trainee role, we are looking for someone with strong potential, organisation and willingness to learn rather than extensive professional experience.

Essential

• Lived experience of forced displacement
• Good digital literacy and confidence using computers for everyday work.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office and Google Workspace (such as Word/Docs, Excel/Sheets, email and shared drives).
• Confident and accurate typing skills.
• Good spoken and written English, with the ability to communicate clearly with different people
• A professional and friendly telephone manner.
• Good organisational and time-management skills.
• Able to follow instructions, keep accurate records and manage agreed tasks
• Good communication and teamwork skills.
• Willingness to learn and develop production and project-management skills.
• Comfortable working with people from different backgrounds and cultures.
• Able to work flexibly across office, community and event settings.

Desirable

• Able to work respectfully and effectively with people from diverse cultural, social and lived-experience backgrounds, including refugee and asylum-seeking communities.
• Familiarity with Trello, Slack or other project-management/collaboration systems.
• Some experience of producing, production management, project coordination, events or arts administration.
• Experience of community arts, theatre, festivals or live events.
• Experience working or volunteering with community groups.

For more information including how to apply, and a full job description please visit Mafwa Theatre's website here:

We welcome and encourage applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries.

Please make sure that you state in your application that you found this role via Creative Access.