Culture, Media, Sports and the Arts; Leisure, Hospitality and Tourism
Image kindly provided by Leeds Metropolitan University
Britain is a creative country and our creative industries are increasingly vital to the UK. Two million people are employed in creative jobs and the sector contributes £60 billion a year – 7.3 per cent – to the British economy. Over the past decade, the creative sector has grown at twice the rate of the economy as a whole and is well placed for continued growth as demand for creative content – particularly in English – grows. Creative Britain, 2008
West Yorkshire has a rich and varied range of cultural industries including the arts, leisure, sports, events, festivals; the hospitality and tourism industries, all contributing to the economy, regional renaissance and profile. This sector has seen a slow but steady rise but less than nationally due to a deficit in higher level skills. Largely comprising of small to medium enterprises, sole traders and freelancers, it remains an important area of growth for the region and is one of Yorkshire Forward’s key priority areas. 2012 Olympics provides a focus for developing cross agency and institutional collaboration, working together to explore skills needs, develop mechanisms to engage new learners and implement innovative curricula.
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Image kindly provided by Leeds Metropolitan University
As a diverse and dynamic sector, provision of flexible training and bite size learning opportunities will be vital. Furthermore, developments in accreditation of prior experiential learning [APEL] will be a useful tool for those employees wishing to undertake higher level learning programmes.
Agencies within the region, such as Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Skills Partnership, Arts Council England – Yorkshire and Sport England – Yorkshire have all identified business skills, higher skills, leadership and management and technical skills as priorities, plus the need for information, advice and guidance to support business development and growth.
Please see the following Sector Skills Councils details for further information on each area covered within this sector group.
Creative & Cultural Skills is the Sector Skills Council for Advertising, Crafts, Cultural Heritage, Design, Music, Performing, Literary and Visual Arts.
Skillset is the industry body which supports skills and training for people and businesses to ensure the UK creative media industries maintain their world class position.
SkillsActive is the Sector Skills Council for Active Leisure and Learning.
Skillfast-UK is the Sector Skills Council for fashion and textiles.
People 1st is The Sector Skills Council for the Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism industries
e-skills UK is a not-for-profit , employer-led organisation, licensed by government as the Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms.
Image kindly provided by Leeds Metropolitan University
Some interesting facts and figures about the Creative and Cultural Industries:
• 45,870 people work in the creative and cultural industries in Yorkshire & Humberside
• There are just under 4,000 businesses in the region, and 78% employ less than 5 people
• 66% are self employed
• There is a 60% majority of male workers
• 97% of people working in Yorkshire & Humberside in the creative and cultural sector are white
• Yorkshire & Humberside creative and cultural industries contribute £1.4m to the UK economy
• Since 2006, the creative and cultural industries in Yorkshire and Humberside have grown by 22%, compared to the UK average of 9%
• There are 14,400 courses available in Yorkshire & Humberside, 8% of the creative and cultural UK total
• 31,712 students in FE/HE in the Yorkshire & Humberside, 8% of the England total
• 40% of creative organisations arranged training in the last year, UK average is 32%
• 80% of training is undertaken in ‘office hours’
• 82% of businesses do not have a training budget and 22% were aware of funding they could access, UK average is 20%. 23% had accessed funding
• 8% of businesses have recruitment difficulties, UK average is 12%
• Businesses say that ‘a lack of skills’ (56%), ‘experience’ (33%) and ‘qualifications’ (13%) were recruitment issues
• The creative role was most difficult to recruit to
• 25% of employers said there were skills gaps
• The management role is most likely to have skills gaps, and IT and technical skills are the most sought after
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