The National Screen Institute has announced the first participants in its new Lifestyle Series Producer course.

The shows, production companies and their nominated students are as follows:

• Chef Michael’s Kitchen, Cellar Door Productions, Ann Whiteway
• Yukon Gold, Paperny Entertainment, Rachel Coe
• Love it or List it, Big Coat Productions, Melissa Smith
• Decked Out, Architect Films, Christina Velocchi
• Property Brothers, Cineflix, Jessica Vander Kooij
• Mother of the Bride, RTR Media, Nicole Butler
• TBD, Frantic Films, Kate Green

The training, part of a push for more skilled Canadian factual and lifestyle series producers, includes an initial week of training, happening this week in Toronto, followed by an eight-week apprenticeship on an existing lifestyle series by one of the program partners, Shaw Media, Corus Entertainment and Bell Media.

The course cost is $25,000 per candidate, paid by the production company that nominated a qualified candidate from within their company, with $13,000 payable to the NSI to offset training costs and $12,000 to cover the participant’s apprenticeship stipend.

“As a production company, we not only have to be forward-thinking with our ideas but also with how we plan to execute those ideas, which begins and ends with people,” said Mike Sheerin, President of Architect Films, in a statement.

Al Magee is the program advisor and Brandice Vivier is program manager.

The initial one-week training bootcamp began Oct. 15 and runs through to Oct. 19 in Toronto.