Qualification Reform
Overview of Problem
The creative and cultural industries lean heavily toward graduate and postgraduate recruits. Yet they tell us that these applicants don't have the right skills to be successful in their chosen careers. The industry also relies on a principle of on-the-job learning, ad hoc and informal training.
In addition, the industry sees it as vital that training has an educational context, mentoring and apprentices schemes are considered key. And yet in many cases learners are not taught practical or technical skills, but rather theoretical and historical contexts.
Business skills, management and leadership and professional skills need to be developed in specific reference to the industry. Currently there are few available courses that reference cultural leadership, or business management for the creative industries.
Clearer pathways to successful careers in the sectors are needed with consistent, impartial information that can be easily accessed by diverse groups of individuals.
Demand Side Evidence
The industry is demanding a move toward NVQs at level 3 and above, work based training and the establishment of apprenticeship schemes.
There is a chronic shortage of information on occupational pathways that are accepted and respected by the industry.
A lack of experience and key skills are prevalent in the sector. As a result, businesses are likely to recruit people who have been working in the creative and cultural industries for some time, rather than take a chance on a recent graduate.
Supply Side Evidence
The industry is oversupplied and under skilled (over half a million FE and HE students are on creative or cultural courses, competing for 6000 annual vacancies)
Among students there is a lack of knowledge regarding the types of jobs that are available in the sector. There is also a lack of impartial information assessing the quality of teaching at FE and HE level with a creative focus.
To find out how Creative & Cultural Skills is addressing this issue, visit Projects.