Education blueprint ‘lacks commitment to creativity’

A blueprint for addressing post-16 employment skills has all but missed out creativity entirely.

Critics say the Department for Education's (DfE) recent Skills For Jobs White Paper fails to inspire confidence that investment in creative skills will be “sufficiently prioritised”.

Writing in a blog for the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre website, Lesley Giles, Director of Work Advance, said its lack of detail creates “much uncertainty and many unknowns”.

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Despite being the “most significant step since 2016" to update England's skills strategy, there was still more work to do, she said.

The white paper says that, "for far too long we have squandered our latent creativity and talent".

"This white paper will be the lever to unleash it."

However, its lack of detail about financial commitments was a major concern.

“There is limited detail up front of the financial commitments to different policy announcements to give confidence to the scale of the post Covid-19 ‘skills-led recovery’ overall, let alone to enhance the specialist skills for the creative industries,” Giles wrote.

Regeneration needs

The Creative Industries Federation has also questioned the Department for Education's support for creative subjects.

Federation CEO Caroline Norbury said she was “deeply concerned” by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson’s recent comments in the Commons.

Williamson said funding for post-18 education would prioritise “strategic subjects such as engineering and medicine while slashing the taxpayer subsidy for such subjects as media studies”.

Norbury said there will be a greater need for creative skills and innovation, "for great ideas that can drive our regeneration and create the jobs of tomorrow", as the UK economy rebuilds. 

“Government must ensure a diversity of creative courses across the country, and at all levels, are well-resourced to make this happen.

"Creative education is not a ‘nice to have’; it must be accessible to all.”

Enhancing opportunities

Giles said there were positives to the white paper: “When thinking about the future needs of high value, high-skilled creative industries, there is lots to be hopeful about."

“It provides an important basis to take a more strategic view across the skills system and to drive improvements in the quality of further and higher education.”

This may help enhance opportunities for young people and adults alike to pursue creative careers, "supplying a greater range of people, creative skills and technical expertise into the sector".

While a commitment to develop more options for study at level 4 and 5 could be positive for the creative industries, Giles cautions that a “mixed delivery model” is needed to support employment for the large number of freelancers in the sector.

The white paper says DfE is already engaging with the creative sectors to "understand and tackle" the barriers the sector faces in making full use of apprenticeships, including varied and flexible employment.

"We are working with Screenskills and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to test a new apprenticeship agency in the film and television sector in 2021, and we are working with employers in other sectors to consider whether such agencies could increase the use of apprenticeships."

Technical education

Also in question is how a policy commitment to prioritise technical education will impact creative subjects. 

Future participation in creative education will depend upon what subjects are selected, meaning they are "susceptible as ever to the process for measuring ‘value’ set by Government economists," Giles said.

She said a "sufficiently nuanced" approach is needed because the creative industries rely so highly on dynamic business models and flexible, atypical working patterns.