Jennifer Pun, Laura Grant and Shaun Johnson have been selected as the first three producers to participate in Bell Media’s inaugural Producer Accelerator Lab Production Apprenticeship program.

The two-part program, which aims to elevate the talent of mid-level Canadian producers, is part of Bell Media’s $1.8 million TV Skills Development Initiative.

Starting this past March, the first part of the program saw eight participants complete a six-week broadcast internship at Bell Media’s Toronto headquarters. Program participants included Trey Anthony, Rosalie Chilelli, Shane Corkery, Sally Karam and Tracey Mack, along with Pun, Grant and Johnson.

The top three producers from the program were then awarded the production apprenticeships, each of which will last from six to eight months.

“It was a very difficult decision because all eight participants are extremely talented. We essentially evaluated each participant throughout the six weeks to get a sense that they were actually applying what they learned throughout the program,” Susan Makela, director of independent production and strategic planning at Bell Media, told Playback Daily. “Knowing who our production partners would be in the apprenticeship stage, with their particular skill sets, we felt Lauren, Shaun and Jennifer were the best fit for those companies.”

Pun will start her placement with Shaftesbury in November, Grant will apprentice at Temple Street Productions while Johnson will head to marblemedia. Grant and Johnson will start their apprenticeships later this month.

Pun’s previous producing credits include How to Be Indie and Connor Undercover. She also was also coproducer on Terrance Odette’s feature film Fall. Currently, she also serves as a business consultant to production companies and has several television projects in development through her production company Courier Ink.

Grant is the principal of Clique Pictures, and is currently working on the post-production of the feature film Wet Bum and the documentary Traceable. Other productions Grant has worked on include  Picture Day and the short films Frost and Savage.

Finally, previous productions Johnson has worked on include Aircraft Picture’s Wingman and The Breadwinner. Johnson served as head of production at Aircraft Pictures, and also previously worked as a producer at Frantic Films, working on projects such as Todd and the Book of Pure Evil and Guinea Pig.