Creative and Cultural Skills

Creative and Cultural Skills Regional Contact:

Victoria Pirie, Executive Director Partnerships & Strategy
Creative and Cultural Skills
11 Southwark Street
London 
SE1 1RQ

M:   07725 134093
E:    victoria.pirie@ccskills.org.uk

www.ccskills.org.uk

Learning and Skills Council Contact:  hilary.porter@lsc.gov.uk

Overview of the Sector in the North East

Creative & Cultural Skills covers the arts, museums and galleries, heritage, crafts and design.
The sub sectors covered by Creative and Cultural Skills SSC are: Advertising, Crafts, Cultural Heritage, Design, Music, Performing, Literary and Visual Arts:
  • The Arts – music, the performing arts, visual arts and literary arts
  • Cultural Heritage – museums, galleries and heritage organisations
  • Craft – including designer makers of contemporary crafts, covering over 50 specialist trades and occupations
  • Design – specialist consultancies covering graphic, spatial and domestic products
This sector is of strategic importance as its work significantly contributed to making the UK the fifth largest tourism destination in the world through world class heritage sites, entertainment and events, whilst it is also a substantial export earner. It raises the UK profile and enhances the UK plc 'brand image'.

Key issues facing the sector now and in the future

*Culture10, a £140 million programme of investment centred on high profile cultural events, is expected to generate £1.2 billion and create 24,000 jobs by 2010.  This figure does not include capital developments outside of Newcastle Gateshead, or continuing investment in museums and galleries through Renaissance in the Regions and the North East Museums Hub. The tourism sector is forecasting growth of 9% to 2010. Growth in the creative and cultural sector is expected to match and possibly exceed this figure. (CP)
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Business skills e.g. business planning, business growth, income generation
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Investment finance
  • Strategic marketing skills
  • Customer service
  • Soft skills in school leavers and graduates – communication, team working, appreciation of deadline working, awareness of need to contribute to entrepreneurship of the business with idea generation, presentation skills, client facing skills, confidence with clients and communicating own ideas
  • Skills gaps or needs sector specific
  • Conceptual thinkers in advertising – the creative directors of the future
  • Conservationists in Museums and Galleries, in some pockets, curators
  • Stage Technicians (CP)

Employment Issues in the North East

Attracting people into the sector
The employers within the CCS footprint have not expressed problems with attracting people in general to the creative and cultural sector, however there is a lack of awareness of particular jobs in some pockets of the footprint which results in low numbers of applicants for available jobs. In certain disciplines there has been an oversupply of graduates year on year, which if such graduates were to elect to enter the discipline they specifically trained in would swamp the market, however, many graduates apply their studies in many different fields. There is some concern that there may be geographic barriers to attracting people into the sector in NE. Occupational mapping, and Destinations research will form part of CCS longitudinal work to be commissioned in November 2005. (CP)

Skill requirements of new recruits

Soft skills are constantly reported by employers as being under-developed in graduates, as previously mentioned.  Employers report that on the whole, graduate’s studies provide the technical skills required, however, specifics can be missing from their skill set or knowledge base.  This can usually be addressed through work based learning and work experience.

Workforce Development in the North East

Skills shortages/gaps in existing workforce and latent skills issues

The skills needs of the sector can be categorised into three broad areas:
1.    Continuous artistic and professional development/technical skills
2.    Generic skills to assist in micro business development IT, finance and marketing skills
3.    Increase customer service capability in larger venues, museums and theatres

A major concern for a large proportion of employers and practitioners in the sector is the need for enhanced skills in running a business.  Specifically:

  • Managing people and finance
  • How to grow the business
  • How to secure investment for the business
  • R & D for the future of that business
  • Strategic marketing and business planning
  • Relationship marketing to retain clients
  • Grow their spend and add new clients to grow the business client base
  • How to income generate with current assets i.e. what else can the business do with the assets in hand (this is true for public sector organisations too which need to create income to match public sector funding)
  • Team building
  • Effective financial controls
  • Personnel (e.g. employment law, development/appraisal)
  • How to protect and exploit IP rights
*A skills action plan which is being developed by the North East Cultural Partnership in conjunction with others, classifies skills needs in three ways:
  • Leadership, Enterprise and Organisational Skills (LEO)
  • Culture sector specific LEO skills (skills that need to be learned in a context specific way)
  • Specialist practice skills from foundation level to masters and beyond
ACENE, NCSP, NEMLAC and NORDAF organised a series of seminars around the region in February and March 2005 for CCI employers and training providers to inform the development of the Skills Action Plan.  Employers at these events rated relevant work experience as important as qualifications and identified a need for both basic and high level skills training for employees to fill current skills needs in:
  • Administration
  • Art form/industry specific skills
  • Audience development
  • Business skills
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Fundraising
  • Intellectual property (and its application)
  • Leadership
  • Product marketing
  • Self-development
  • Social inclusion
  • New technologies
  • Traditional skills
  • Work-readiness of graduates

The cultural heritage and arts sub-sectors in the region have not widely adopted the NVQ framework.  This has been reported by the sector all over the UK and in that regard a new Creative Apprenticeship is being designed by Creative & Cultural Skills with a task force of employers and educationalists, to be designed by summer 2006, piloted during autumn/winter 2006 and initial phase to be delivered in April 2007.

The North East Cultural Partnership’s work with focus groups of arts and cultural heritage organisations found that employers want:

  • More opportunities for workplace learning
  • More artform/industry specific training
  • More graduate placement programmes
  • More live project work as part of undergraduate and college provision
  • More work experience modules
  • More flexible (non-accredited) learning to respond to changing needs

Employers advocated the development of training hubs/networks to manage apprenticeship programmes, develop peer to peer learning (through coaching, mentoring, work shadowing and exchanges), facilitate progression and foster a culture of continuous professional development and lifelong learning. 

Skill needs were reported by over 40% of respondents to NCSP survey and included:

  • Advocacy / communication skills
  • Audience development skills
  • Presentation skills
  • Leadership
  • Networking/partnership building skills
  • Funding / sponsorship
  • Project management
  • Strategic planning
  • Business / change management
  • Mentoring / staff training
  • ICT – specialist applications
  • Cultural Diversity

Future skills demand

Creative & Cultural Skills research will analyse future trends and conduct qualitative survey with employers to determine future needs. This work will be available on the Creative Knowledge Lab in mid 2006. (CP)

Prioritisation of skills issues within the industries

Each creative and cultural sub industry will have a different view of what the top priority is in terms of specific skills needs. However, in general, employers rate management, leadership, business skills, and CPD of existing members of the sector as of great concern; and the soft skills of new entrants to sector such as graduates, work-readiness of graduates and oversupply of graduates in some disciplines are also a source of concern. (CP)

Learning and Skills Infrastructure in the North East

A lack of suitable courses in the area was stated to be a barrier for only 18% of companies in this sector compared to 16% nationally. (Regional Fact Sheet 2005 from NESS 2003)

Similarly, a lack of suitable courses generally was considered a barrier for only 15% of companies in the NE compared to 14% in England as a whole. (Regional Fact Sheet 2005 from NESS 2003)

Relevance and quality of existing provision

Creative & Cultural Skills aims to ensure that provision is relevant and will work closely with employers and education sector to match need to supply. Creative Choices (a CCS web service) will quality-mark courses which deliver work-ready graduates. Research of provision will be part of the CCS research work to be undertaken from November 2005 and delivered Spring 2006. Education and training provision which is aimed at preparing people for industry must be employer influenced to maximise public investment in education for the benefit of the creative and cultural economy. (CP)

Barriers to employers accessing the skills provision they need

Almost one third of companies reported no barriers to training.  The proportion of firms reporting barriers was broadly similar to the national level, although with a greater proportion citing high staff turnover, and a lower proportion reporting lack of cover for training and unwillingness of staff to undertake training. (Regional Fact Sheet 2005 based on NESS)
Employers in some areas of the sector find it difficult to invest in training, and very often the leader of the company who feels the need for training, very rarely prioritises it due to time constraints. (CP)

Best Practice

In addressing the management and leadership needs of the sector, it is anticipated that the Cultural Leadership funds will provide a senior managers programme which will be easier to accommodate than the Clore Foundation’s leadership development programme[1]. This is an excellent programme, however, it does demand extensive periods of absence from work and has a substantial cost attached. The Cultural Leadership strand will seek to deliver a high level course in a manner more suited to the SME nature of the sector.

The Cultural Enterprise Office model adopted in Scotland is an intervention, which has surmounted barriers to the creative and cultural sector accessing business advice – reported to be because advisors were not considered knowledgeable about the creative and cultural industries.  Scottish Enterprise’s Small Business Gateway created the Cultural Enterprise Office based in cultural businesses in four cities, delivering business advice and other support through dedicated officers and a range of part-time advisers who are practitioners in various parts of the footprint. This intervention meets the needs of the sector in terms of business development, business growth, networking, co-working etc.  This may be a model of interest to the North East. (CP)

Arts & Business provide an excellent range of support services, advice and training of great value to the sector. (CP)

Drafted by Creative & CulturalSkills, supplemented by information provided from North East Cultural Partnership*.
[1] The Clore Foundation is a grant-giving organisation which concentrates its support on education, the arts, museum and gallery education, cultural leadership training, health and social welfare, whilst placing a particular emphasis on supporting children, young people and society’s more vulnerable individuals.
JIGSAW

Do you work in the Creative Industries? If so, the Jigsaw programme has been put together especially to help you ‘get real’ about running your business. If your business success depends upon your individual creativity, skill and talent - whatever your product or service is – Jigsaw provides you with the legal, financial and business skills to get your business where you want it to be, with confidence.
Jigsaw is a tailor made course of 3-hour long sessions over 10 weeks, delivered by experts in law, finance, IT, marketing, PR and a wide variety of other aspects of business relevant to you. Legal and technical advice will also be available to you on an individual basis. Each expert has been chosen to ensure that they have a full understanding of the unique nature of the creative industries. They will help to convince you that ‘business’ is not a dirty word!
For further details of the next Jigsaw programme dates, details of fees and how to apply, please contact Joanna Berry on 0191 243 0840, or email joanna.berry@ncl.ac.uk
Supporting Documents and Downloads
doc file icon Creative Blueprint - North East Key Information [doc] (216 KB)