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

Creating Prosperity: the role of higher educationin driving the UK’s creative economy4514. CASE STUDYThe Creative Employability Studio,University of WolverhamptonThe school of art and design at the Universityof Wolverhampton established the CreativeEmployability Studio in May 2008. TheStudio, which is wholly funded by the school,promotes and enhances student employabilitythrough real-work initiatives and thedevelopment of commercial awarenessskills. It creates a central point for all creativeemployability activity undertaken by theUniversity, which was previously limited,fragmented and ad hoc.The Studio model comprises four coreelements that overlap:• Work: this provides real-work opportunities(placements and live briefs) that allowcreative students to use their skills ina commercial context. In recognition ofthe difficulties for creative businesses inproviding long-term placements, shorttermplacements are offered. The Studioalso advertises employment opportunitiesand assists the sector with recruitment.• Skills: this develops the employabilityskills of the students by seeking outexhibition space for their own work,advertising and encouraging students toenter competitions, investigating how andwhere students can promote and sell theirwork, and assisting students to developcommercial skills through networkingand self-promotion activities.• Industry: this involves the provisionof workspace to current practitionersand micro-businesses, and industrycommunication, events and sponsorship.Crucially, the Studio provides a focalpoint for industry and gives industrythe means to talk to the University.• Practitioners: this seeks to engagethose currently working in the sector,and comprises practitioners-in-residenceschemes, ‘honorary practitioners’providing workshops and seminars, andthe creation of ‘success stories’ to providelocal examples of what previous studentshave achieved.The holistic approach of combining acollection of activities under the one projectis of value and recognises that employabilityskills cannot simply be learned, but they mustbe acquired over time and refined througha variety of methods.The background of the staff, with manyhaving been practitioners, helps achieveindustry and academic buy-in. With manyindustry practitioners sceptical with regardsto what academics know about the realitiesof industry, persistence in relationshipbuilding is required.At a more practical level, having one mainphysical space where all employability activityis centred provides a focal point for all keystakeholders: industry, students/graduatesand academia.4.105 A similar set of issues arises in the context of entrepreneurship education, a distinct but relatedcomponent of the wider employability agenda. Research has identified a lack of entrepreneurship asa barrier to the effective growth of the UK’s creative industries (NESTA 2006), and yet the freelanceculture demands a degree of entrepreneurial skill. Evidence regarding the extent of entrepreneurshipeducation in higher education courses related to the creative industries is somewhat conflicting.4.106 In their review of entrepreneurship education for the creative industries, NESTA and the HE Academy(2007) found ‘significant enthusiasm for entrepreneurship education’ within art, design and mediasubjects as well as a wide range of different approaches. Eighty per cent of the respondents in theirsurvey reported some form of entrepreneurship teaching in their institution. However, the NationalCouncil for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE, 2007) found that entrepreneurship education is stilldominated by business and management schools (61 per cent of all provision), with less provisionin creative arts and design courses (eight per cent). Although based on different analyses, thisdoes suggest a degree of mismatch.4.0 Higher education’s contribution