The White Room, Manchester’s Cornerhouse and Manchester Metropolitan University are on the look-out for young people with ‘the App Factor’, and have just launched the project’s website .

The App School (Creative Innovation Lab) is an innovative new scheme created by The White Room and some of the city’s leading creative businesses.

The programme will take 10 budding creatives, based in the ‘Manchester City Council’ area and aged between 18 and 24, and will put them through an intensive training course where they’ll develop their ideas for cutting-edge mobile phone apps. Most importantly through the scheme they’ll receive career-enhancing support and guidance that’ll help them get a foot in the door to the creative industries.

The App School will consist of a weekend-long ‘ideas lab’, followed by a series of four one-day creative business workshops, where they will be coached by some of the city’s finest trainers and creative companies. The programme starts at the end of February 2010, and all sessions will take place at Cornerhouse, Oxford Road, Manchester City Centre. In addition the the course being free, participants will also receive a training bursary.

At the end of the scheme, participants will pitch their worked-up plans – Dragons Den style – to a panel of creative companies, and if they like what they see, they’ll build the app and take it to market with its creator!

With over $3bn worth of mobile phone apps downloaded in the last 2 years, they are the latest phenomenon to sweep the digital industry – presenting budding creative entrepreneurs across the globe with a real chance of turning their ideas into reality.

And you don’t have to be a techie or a geek to make your fortune with them. Inspiration for The App School came from a bin man called Rob Shoesmith. Rob had an idea for an app called ‘Problem Halved’ and worked with an American developer to take his idea to market. His app has now sold over 3.7m copies – at a dollar a time!

Stephen Hey, of Manchester-based mobile phone games developer Connect2Media, says, “This is a great opportunity for for creative types with an idea to make it a reality. This age group is unburdened by ‘received knowledge’ and so I’m sure they will come up with some very exciting concepts that will surprise and delight.”

Phil Birchenall, Project Director at The White Room says, “We’re really excited about The App School as we know that the kind of things people will learn are exactly what businesses in the creative industries are looking for. If I was the right age I’d be going on it myself!”

To apply for The App School head over to www.appschool.co.uk .

Creative Innovation Labs is funded by Manchester City Council, delivered in partnership with Cornerhouse, MMU, Manchester Beacon for Public Engagement and is being managed by The White Room. If you have any questions about The App School, please email info@thewhiteroomcec.com or call Phil on 0161 446 2991.