Creating Prosperity: the role of higher education in ... - Universities UK

Creating Prosperity: the role of higher educationin driving the UK’s creative economy13Skills and entrepreneurship3.26 Higher education has an obvious role to play in developing the skills and talent that support thecreative economy, particularly in light of the high proportion of graduates in the sector. Thebreadth and diversity of the creative industries means that they draw upon skilled graduatesfrom a wide range of disciplines and often have diverse requirements.Skills for the creative industries3.27 The creative industries are characterised by high levels of self-employment (sole traders andfreelancers). According to a recent large-scale, longitudinal survey of creative graduates (CreativeGraduates Creative Futures), one in three creative graduates run their own business and/or work ina freelance capacity (Ball et al, 2010). This pattern of self-employment and portfolio working demandsdiverse skills relating both to technical capability and the successful management of what can beless secure and less predictable career paths.3.28 The creative industries workforce typically comprises young 9 , highly-qualified and highly-skilled 10individuals who are lifelong learners ‘keen to develop their skills and knowledge, enhance theirjob prospects, and follow personal interests often related to their creative practice’. (Ball et al,2010, p xxv).3.29 In a sector where innovation is critical, constant and pervasive, and new technologies rapidly movefrom cutting edge to industry standard, possessing the necessary skills to innovate is also critical(Skillset and CC Skills, 2009).3.30 In particular, individuals must be equipped to understand and respond to the rapid technologicalchanges inherent in the creative industries. According to Skillset and Creative and Cultural Skills(CC Skills) (2009), the ‘greatest single movement in skills requirements is due to advances in digitaltechnology, transforming the ways in which creative content and creative products are created anddistributed’ (p25). It is therefore essential that the UK’s creative sector has the ability and capacityto continue to generate new creative content.3.31 Specialist knowledge (including the STEM subjects) is essential, and there is growing demand formultidisciplinary skills – both creative and technical (Skillset, 2009). While requirements for specialistskills tend to be sub-sector defined, the literature suggests a general demand for expertise in digitaltechnology (e-Skills, 2009), highlighting the importance of STEM subjects to the creative economy.3.32 Indeed, there is often a false opposition established between ‘creative’ subjects on one hand, andSTEM subjects on the other. At one level, this is understandable, as the policy priority on STEM hasmeant a recent emphasis on increasing student places in these subjects, with a concern that thiswill come at the expense of places elsewhere. The outcomes of Browne and the CSR make thisincreasingly likely. However, STEM skills are also needed in the creative economy, whether engineersin broadcasting or maths and physics skills in computer games development. This is consistentlyoverlooked in current debates that seek to polarise STEM and creative disciplines. We have alreadynoted, in a parallel fashion, that graduates from creative subjects are to be found in businesses rightacross the economy and not simply within the creative industries. Indeed, creative skills are neededin all industries, including those supported by the STEM disciplines. This clearly challenges a narrowview of STEM as the sole route to economic growth.3.33 Although the breadth of the creative industries is such that some skills requirements will affect onlyspecific sub-sectors, common skills issues are also evident. In particular, there is an identified needto combine a breadth of core, softer skills with technical specialisms – the so-called ‘T’ skills(Skillset and CC Skills, 2009).3.0 Drivers of the creative economy