The Central Junior Television Workshop was originally set up by Central Independent Television in 1983 to act as a casting pool for young talent in their broadcasting region in the English Midlands.
In late 2008, the Birmingham workshop run by their director Colin Edwards and his assistant Ross Berkeley Simpson, lost funding from ITV due to the recession and so the Birmingham branch went 'dark'.
In 2009, Ross Berkeley Simpson started a new, separate group called First Act Workshops to ensure that the work continued in Birmingham.
First Act Workshops trains young actors in weekly sessions from Moseley Dance Centre.
The Nottingham branch of the Central Television Workshop still continues under the name The Television Workshop under the helm of Nic Harvey.