Opportunity knocks

Many of you reading this will have memories of the recessions of the 1980s and 90s. You will remember the demoralising effect of ‘equal misery for all’. That was a powerful argument to persuade the government to increase the grants to Arts Council England (ACE) by over 73%, getting arts organisations back to a healthy level of funding over the past decade, and to save the arts and culture from their percentage share of the cut which the DCMS took for next year’s budget.
Many in the creative industries talked also of the challenge facing entire generations who left school or college and simply couldn’t find work in those last recessions. In the past, when the economy dipped, our sectors were the first to be cut, wrongly seen as luxuries for better days. In the 1980s and 90s the Tories slashed budgets at local and national level – this mistake will not be repeated. Rising youth unemployment rates mean that many of those who have been unemployed for a year will be talented, motivated people who just need a break. So how do we provide this break? There are many ways we can work with the creative industries to ensure that offering work to the young unemployed is not too difficult or burdensome.

Of course at the simplest level, many medium-sized organisations such as festivals, theatres, music venues or arts centres have a natural turnover of vacancies. Some of them have already said that they would be happy to interview young unemployed people to see if they are suitable to work in the box office, front of house, marketing, learning departments, or administration or junior technical areas. These gateway jobs have always been a way into the creative industries for many, from college or even from school. Our plan is to provide funding for the employer which would follow any unemployed person they hired, and some extra funding for training in some circumstances as well.
Other cultural and creative industry leaders have already volunteered to start work on schemes to create new jobs, for which up to £6,000 per job is available. The jobs need to be of value to the organisation and the community they serve of course, and the money should have some matching funding which means that some creative industries may not feel able to offer such an opportunity. But some have already said they would like to help, and I am grateful – as will be the lucky 18–24 year olds who gets such a great start. Even those who cannot offer work might be able to offer mentoring or the chance to develop a skill in a training workshop, or even perhaps just a friendly drop-in advice service.
So we are trying to think imaginatively across government about the special needs of the creative industries. One example is a new scheme to offer artists and creative people, including the unemployed, free spaces to develop their work – working both with local government and ACE. Our new initiative to offer 5,000–10,000 job opportunities to young unemployed people recognises that the creative industries are vital to the economic prosperity and cultural health of the country, and we want to make sure that we invest now to keep this sector healthy. We believe that if we work hard with the creative industries, we can not only make sure that we do not lose a young generation as a result of the recession, but we can also create a fairer system of entry which allows the best – not the most well-off – to get the opportunities.