Website launched in plan to help 2m choose creative careers

Creative Careers Programme Aims to Help 2m

A creative careers programme aims to help 2m UK young people learn more about the range of jobs in the UK's fast-growing creative industries.

The programme will provide up to date information on creative career paths and train careers advisers to help diverse young people realise the employment opportunities on offer in UK creative roles.

The aim is to reach more than 160,000 students face-to-face by 2020, with around 2m young people accessing information online including via the Discover Creative Careers website.

The programme, delivered by ScreenSkills, Creative & Cultural Skills and the Creative Industries Federation, in partnership with The Careers and Enterprise Company and Speakers for Schools, was launched at the home of Burberry and the Burberry Foundation in Leeds. Part of the launch included this film about creative career opportunities in the UK.

The launch marks the first anniversary of the creative industries sector deal agreed by the Government and Industry, which has led to a range of initiatives covering areas such as creative clusters, development of a new international board for trade and investment, and funding to develop the role of the creative sectors in growing local economies around Britain.

Creative employment is growing three times faster than jobs in the economy as a whole, with the creative industries reporting significant numbers of positions left unfilled or in need of better skills. Yet many young people are unaware they could use creative skills to secure careers, and disadvantaged groups in society are under-represented within the creative workforce.

It is intended that the Creative Careers Programme will encourage employers to recognise the role they can play in shaping and informing careers advice, and well as by putting more inclusive recruitment policies into practice.

The programme, which has attracted pledges of £12m of in-kind support from industry, is designed to:

• Inspire young people aged 11 to 16 to discover career roles within the creative economy, including via a national week in which employers will open their doors to youngsters
• Ensure people aged 14-24 have access to high quality information online and to well-trained senior volunteers who will act as advisers in schools and colleges, through The Careers & Enterprise Company
• Help employers to diversify their workforce and plug skills shortages by identifying the most urgently-needed apprenticeship standards and fast-tracking their development.

Read what industry leaders and Government figures say about the new programme in the full release here

How you can support the creative careers programme

All image/video credits: Creative Careers Programme/Angelica Bomford.

Related:

‍Statistics and infographics on the UK's creative workforce