Cultural shift

For too many talented young people, getting started in the creative and cultural industries is not an option. Unpaid work experience dominates, which discriminates against those who cannot afford to work for nothing. The impact is significant. The cultural sector is 95% white and made up almost entirely of graduates. In museums and galleries, more than 50% of employees have a PhD or Masters degree. Getting a foot in the door is too often about personal connections – who you know, rather than what you know. The Creative Apprenticeship is an alternative route into the creative and cultural industries to open up accessibility and address skills gaps. After pilots in 2006, it was launched across England in September 2008. Pilots are now underway in Scotland, and the framework has been approved for use in Wales and Northern Ireland. An apprenticeship can currently be taken in technical theatre, community arts, cultural venue operations or front of house, live events management and music business. It responds to specific skills needs, and could respond to more in the future.

Slow start

A new approach could revolutionise the way the industry operates, and have a significant impact on cultural creation and consumption in the UK. The Learning and Skills Council has allocated £4,000 per apprentice to provide off-the-job training, which the apprentice undertakes at college. A target of 5,000 Apprentices by 2013 was identified by the DCMS within the Creative Britain strategy. It is being supported by the UK Arts Councils and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. Local authorities are also looking for ways to embed it. It was a key topic at the recent Theatrical Management Association conference for front of house managers. Creative & Cultural Skills (CCSkills) saw more than 1,000 employers face-to-face across the country last year, who said that the Creative Apprenticeship works for them in principle. So why does it feel as if the programme is yet to really take off?

The answer is simple and predictable – money. A fundamental aspect is that the apprentice gets paid. The apprenticeship is a job first and a training programme second. Apprentices get time out to go to college, and get a formal, transferable qualification at the end of it. But the key part, and the part that all employers say they want and need when recruiting, is the experience they gain in the working environment, whether in the office, backstage or front of house. However, this seems to be something that cultural sector employers are unwilling, or unable, to value and pay for.

Shining examples

There are clusters of Creative Apprentices working now in Liverpool, in key organisations such as Tate Liverpool and National Museums Liverpool. The Sage Gateshead is co-ordinating a successful group of ten apprentices. The Arcola Theatre in Hackney has hosted one successfully who is now a full-time employee, proving that it is possible for a smaller organisation to take part. Organisations including the Lyric Hammersmith, the Royal Opera House, Apples & Snakes, Lincolnshire Archives and the London Transport Museum have taken up the cause. There is still much to do to embed this programme in the sector so that it can make a real long-term difference. Arts employers ask: “why should I invest in an apprentice, when people are knocking on my door to work for free?” The fact that the cultural sector is built and grown on free labour cannot be denied, and it will take a significant cultural shift to change this. The sector is very different from construction or manufacturing, which have a tradition of taking on apprentices.

We know that investment in a Creative Apprentice will make a real difference. It is a sustainable approach to training, and levers real Government investment in skills into the industry. The Government is taking note that the creative industries are growing at twice the rate of the national economy. We should be seeing interest matched by investment. The long-term impact of a diversified workforce which looks outwards instead of inwards is surely a prize worth having.

Grow your own

Employers who have taken on apprentices say important things about employee loyalty, ‘growing their own’, and the opportunities for business growth which come from the training investment. The Creative Apprenticeship is specifically picking up areas where recruitment has been difficult, such as backstage or front of house. Apprentices themselves are getting a good deal – they are being paid and supported, and will have transferable skills at the end of it, which will make them valuable to future employers: and so the benefit continues. Employers gain things such as better local partnerships as seen in Liverpool and Gateshead. Clusters of apprentices starting at the same time mean that a natural cohort emerges who could work together to become leaders of the future. Employers are also using different models for taking on apprentices, for example sharing the wage between three people. The apprentice gets an enriched experience working at three different tiny galleries for example, whilst the galleries see the benefits themselves. Local education providers are working with employers, too. There are over 20 Further Education providers across England willing and able to support employers taking on an apprentice through pastoral support for apprentices, CRB checks, paperwork and health and safety checks. Employers stress the need for the apprenticeship to be flexible, to fit in with and not be of detriment to the day-to-day business operation.

The benefits are clear, and the opportunity for real investment in training for the sector must not be overlooked. CCSkills will continue to lobby for subsidy to support employers in taking on a Creative Apprentice. We have listened to the small businesses who have explained the difficulties in participating in the programme, even though they are aware of its worth. We are in the process of bidding for funds to set up an Apprenticeship Training Company which could offer further support for employers to participate through the CCSkills Academy. We have lobbied for apprenticeships to be a recognised option within the Department for Work and Pensions’s Future Jobs Fund, and are working with cultural sector employers to bid in to this to ensure that the sector can benefit. We are extremely pleased that the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council has put forward £500,000 over two years to encourage museums to take part. However, waiting for wage subsidy to materialise must not be the stance the cultural sector takes. It will never be a sustainable option, and it will therefore never result in the real difference the sector needs. A proactive approach must be taken to diversify the workforce and take advantage of mainstream investment to fulfil skills needs, before it is too late.

Catherine Large is Director, External Relations of Creative & Cultural Skills, the sector skills council for the creative and cultural industries, representing advertising, design, cultural heritage, craft, music, performing arts, visual arts and literature. For further information about the Creative Apprenticeship, please contact Jennie Godsalve.
t: 020 7015 1813
e: jennie.godsalve@ccskills.org.uk
w: https://www.ccskills.org.uk/