New report sheds light on creative employment practices

With the creative industries experiencing considerable growth over the last decade combined with rapid technological advances and an ageing population, the research points to the need to build a more robust talent pipeline and invest in lifelong learning.

The report is written by Directors of Work Advance, Lesley Giles and Heather Carey as part of a suite of State of the Nations research within the Creative Education, Skills and Talent theme.

Key findings include:

• The creative industries recruit young people (under 25) and older people (50+) at a lower rate compared with other sectors. 57 per cent of creative industries employers had recruited young people aged under 25 in the past 2-3 years, compared with 64% across all sectors.

• Older workers aged 50+ are less likely to be recruited, despite 93% of creative employers reporting they were happy with their work readiness when they did draw talent from this group.

• Creative industries employers are more likely to recruit graduates to their first job compared with school or college leavers.
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• Just over a fifth (22 per cent) of creative industries employers had recruited HE leavers compared to 14% across all sectors. However, creative industries employers report that 21 per cent of graduates recruited are not adequately prepared for the role, which is significantly higher than 14 per cent of employers across all industries.

• Creative industries employers are more likely to have had someone on a work placement compared to all industries. A total of 37 per cent of creative industries firms had offered any type of work placement, which compares to 30 per cent across the economy.

• Creative industries firms are however less likely to offer employment after a placement compared with all sectors. This varies depending on the level of education leavers: only 6 per cent of school leavers taken on for a placement with a creative firm are then employed (vs 13 per cent across all sectors), rising to 24 per cent of graduates (vs 28 per cent).

The report is the latest in Creative PEC’s State of the Nations series which is designed to provide robust data and evidence to inform policy to support the creative industries. There were 30 citations for Creative PEC research in theGovernment’s new Sector Plan demonstrating the importance of data to help the creative industries compete on the same playing field as other major industrial sectors. Creative PEC is led by Newcastle University with the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

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