Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre

Today, we launch Skills Mismatches in the UK's Creative Industries, the latest in our flagship ‘State of the Nations’ series designed to support good policy making in the sector. This report is written by Heather Carey and Lesley Giles, Co-Directors of Work Advance, and Professor Dave O’Brien of The University of Manchester. The Creative PEC is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Download the report: https://buff.ly/4hA3STX The rapid growth of the UK’s creative industries has earned them a place in the UK government’s Industrial Strategy as a priority sector. Yet the education and skills system has not been supported to keep pace. This has led to a widening gap between the skills the workforce has and what employers say they need. A core intention of the report published today, is to provide valuable insight to inform Skills England’s forthcoming skills assessment for the creative industries and to help direct investment and provision for the creative sector as part of developing the Creative Industries Sector Plan aligned to the government’s new Industrial Strategy, Invest 2035. Professor Hasan Bakhshi, Director, Creative PEC says: "The creative industries, a priority growth sector for the government, are not alone in having a skills mismatch, reflecting the wider challenges in UK education and skills, but disproportionate numbers of the sector’s ‘hard-to-fill vacancies’ are attributable to a skills shortage. We need nothing less than a system change across UK schools, technical education, universities, continuous professional development and careers pathways to enable the creative economy to realise its growth potential.” Key report findings include: • 65% of ‘hard-to-fill’ vacancies in the creative industries are attributable to skills shortages, compared with just 41% of ‘hard-to-fill’ vacancies across all sectors. • Skills shortages are most pronounced for higher-skilled roles, with 78% of creative industries employers experiencing such deficiencies (in the three highest occupations), compared with 31% across all industries. • Creative industries employers are more likely to report having to delay developing new products or services because of the skills shortages they face. • Skills gaps among the existing creative industries workforce are on the rise, as the sector struggles to get to grips with rapid technological advancement and innovation. In 2022, nearly 60,000 creative industries workers were not fully proficient for their roles – an increase of 15,000 workers since 2017. • Skills gaps caused by the introduction of new technology (including but not limited to AI) and the development of new products and services are a particular challenge for creative businesses. View our previous State of the Nations Report Launches Here: https://buff.ly/3WVIBvL

“Data can tell a powerful story about inequality, revealing the extent of the task to make film more diverse.” In a new blog, Prof Dave O'Brien, Dr Peter Campbell and Dr Mark Taylor Taylor look at demographics, including social class differences, in the British Film Institute (BFI)’s Film Fund applications for NETWORK (early career funding), Development and Production, and who was awarded the funding. Read the blog: https://buff.ly/J2eSEes Creative PEC is funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Photo by Gordon Cowie on Unsplash.

Funding for arts and culture in Scotland has recently undergone some major changes. Here Clive Gillman, Director of Creative Industries for Creative Scotland, asks, ‘What just happened?’ In his guest blog, Clive explains the how, where, what and when - behind the new multi-year funding programme. He also looks at the new criteria for awarding those funds (over £200 million), and the positive impact those changes will have on sustaining and developing cultural and creative organisations in Scotland. Read more about it: https://buff.ly/Xe8EasH Creative PEC is funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

"The Employment Experiences of South African Visual Artists” is the next seminar of the series, Researching Creative Economies in Africa. The seminar will take place on 2 April 2025, 2pm and be presented by Dr Irma Booyens. The paper – written with B. Hracs and R. Comunian - explores the employment experiences of visual artists in the understudied context of South Africa. Drawing on 30 interviews conducted before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and an intersectional approach, it analyses the work/life strategies these entrepreneurs use to navigate art worlds and sustain their artistic practices and livelihoods. Find out more and register: https://lnkd.in/d2qC5Apg The seminar series is supported by funding from the Faculty of Arts & Humanities of King's College London — brings together a range of international researchers and academics to explore new topics and ideas around the development of creative economies in Africa.

"Creative self-employed workforce in England and Wales" Read our latest guest blog, where Dr Ruoxi Wang from The University of Sheffield breaks down the data on self-employed creative workers by geographic location. Using Office of National Statistics data, the research shows which local or combined authority areas have higher percentages of self-employed creative workers, compared to national averages. The data shows that self-employed workers constitute approximately 31.5% of the total creative workforce, with the highest share in the arts, culture and heritage sub-sector, at 59%. It also showed over 80% of occupations such as artists, actors, entertainers and presenters, musicians, dancers and choreographers are classified as self-employed. The blog includes an interactive dashboard which shows how the workforce is distributed across sub-sectors and geographical area. Users can select specific locations and drill down into the data. Read more here: https://buff.ly/DuiruHt Creative PEC is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

“What can we learn about the innovation performance of the creative industries from the UK Innovation Survey?” Creative PEC has launched new research, exploring how the creative industries participate in innovation activities including: R&D, investment, product and service development, environmental benefits and business strategy. The report - written by Dr Rita Nana-Cheraa and Prof Stephen Roper from the Enterprise Research Centre (UK) at University of Warwick - investigates the landscape of innovation in creative industries sub-sectors and compares creative industries innovation to Manufacturing and Other services sectors. Key findings include: A general decline in the percentage of innovation-active creative industries firms over the last decade. Compared to Manufacturing, the percentage of businesses engaging in innovation activities were lower for creative industries but higher than in Other services. National and regional public innovation support have been important drivers of innovation in creative industries. The creative industries report the lowest rates of all types of innovation with environmental benefits (3% to 15% of firms), below the UK averages (5% to 17%). Creative industries firms make disproportionate use of IP mechanisms, including copyright and trademarks. The Creative Industries are much more likely to use specialised innovation skills than other sectors. A higher percentage of firms in the creative industries invest in innovation than in ‘Other services’ sector, but lower than in manufacturing sectors. Creative industries firms were significantly more likely than Other services firms to mention a lack of qualified personnel as a barrier to innovation. Read the report: https://buff.ly/N1ZvGFY The Creative PEC is funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

“What just happened to funding for culture in Scotland?” In a new guest blog, Clive Gillman Director of Creative Industries at Creative Scotland writes about the current state of funding in Scotland, including the multi-year programme that aims to boost funding to 251 organisations in Scotland's creative industries. Gillman explains how a Creative Scotland review of how, when, why and what it funds went on to inform the design of the new funding system. The process resulted in a multi-stage online application process and new funding criteria areas including: Quality & Ambition, Engagement, Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion, Environmental Sustainability, Fair Work, and International. Read more: https://buff.ly/EUvI1i4 Creative PEC is funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

A new Government-backed survey is set to transform insight into creative businesses. Called the Creative Business Panel, the project is run in partnership with Department for Business and Trade and supported by Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The research will be conducted by Creative PEC and CoSTAR Network Foresight Lab, with Verian Group undertaking the survey. It will create a new evidence base over five waves designed to track behaviours, performance and experiences across the creative industries. The resulting data and analysis will inform decision-making in policy and support the creative businesses to grow and thrive in the UK economy and beyond. The research will include a cutting-edge examination of the use of emerging technologies to support businesses to adopt digital innovations that enhance their competitiveness, foster diverse and inclusive workforces, and drive profitability and sustainability. Invites will be sent to participants from early March and the first wave report will be published later this year. Find out more: https://buff.ly/BmpoTxk

Today, with our friends at Creative UK, we launch a major new report on access to finance in the creative industries, “Unleashing Creativity: Fixing the Finance Gap in the Creative Industries” during The Big Creative UK Summit, in London. The event is hosted by Daniel Peters, Founder & Managing Director of Minority Report Ltd, and Marverine Cole of Good Morning Britain, with speakers from across the industry including Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy and ITV News’ Political Editor, Robert Peston. Written by Creative PEC Director, Hasan Bakhshi and Dr Josh Siepel, with Amy Tarr and Lara Carmona of Creative UK, it’s a major piece of analysis, and the first dedicated survey of access to finance in the creative industries since 2017. Dr Josh Siepel, Caroline Norbury OBE, and Sarah Gregory of Creative UK, will present the research which is supported by Creative Industries Council. Here are some highlights: Over half (51%) of creative organisations reported that they believe funders view them as too risky to invest in.  41% of survey respondents say that there are no suitable financial products on the market to meet their needs.   Female and ethnic minority-led creative organisations are more likely to report needing capital (9% and 10% respectively) but face more barriers to access. Organisations with ethnic minority-led leadership are more likely to view access to finance as a barrier and are 17% more likely to have to put their own capital into the business. Lack of knowledge is also a barrier with 30% of those surveyed said they lack the knowledge about finance to make informed decisions for their business and 27% of organisations feeling they do not know where to go for information about finance.    The report identifies several recommendations about how to deal with the challenges including: an increase in public investment in creative industries, addressing investment readiness, market failures, and equal access to capital for under-represented groups.  Read more:

Today, together with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Creative Industries Council we launch the Creative Employer Skills Survey to fill critical evidence gaps on skills in the creative industries. The survey will directly inform the Creative Industries Sector Plan and will collect data from 1,300 creative businesses across the UK, examining: skills shortages & gaps, training provision and future skills needs. Find out more: https://buff.ly/iZjulSY