What Creative & Cultural Skills represents

We represent museums and galleries with permanent collections across the UK, archaeology and built heritage.

The Cultural Heritage Blueprint – a workforce development plan for cultural heritage in the UK

The Cultural Heritage Blueprint, a workforce development plan for cultural heritage in the UK, was launched in December 2008. It lays out a series of recommendations and proposed actions to tackle the skills needs of the cultural heritage sector.

The key areas addressed by the Cultural Heritage Blueprint are:

• Entry into the workforce
• Workforce diversity
• Learning and development for staff and volunteers
• Leadership and management
• Business, enterprise and entrepreneurial skills
• Sector-specific skills

Our work with the sector

• We have developed careers advice specifically for the cultural heritage sector on our website Creative Choices° 
• We offer cultural heritage employers the chance to take on an Apprentice in a wide range of areas, including Creative Apprenticeship pathways in Cultural Venue Operations and Community Arts, through our Apprenticeship Training Service
• Leadership development opportunities are on offer through the Cultural Leadership Programme, the Creative & Cultural Skills Scotland Leadership Programme and the Creative & Cultural Skills Northern Ireland Leadership Programme
• We are coordinating a national network of employers and stakeholders, the Diversity Workforce Network, to discuss best practice examples of the sector’s diversification of the workforce
• We regularly review National Occupational Standards  in Cultural Heritage and Cultural Venue Operations
• We produce labour market research about the cultural heritage sector, including its size, its contribution to the economy, and demographic data
• In January 2010 we held a ‘One Year On’ event with key figures from the sector to review progress made on the Cultural Heritage Blueprint

Be part of our work

How can employers and individuals in the cultural heritage sector get involved in our work?

• Join us in raising awareness of cultural heritage skills issues
• Become a delivery partner for one or more recommendations in the Cultural Heritage Blueprint
• Invest in the delivery of the Cultural Heritage Blueprint
• Contribute to our review of cultural heritage qualifications
• Employ an Apprentice as an entry-level employee in your organisation
• For further information or to register your interest please contact engagement@ccskills.org.uk.

Getting into the cultural heritage sector

Creative Choices° is the first online service to provide the tools, knowledge and networks to support every individual and business to get in, and get on, in the creative and cultural industries.