The cultural industry in Wales educates the next generation about creative careers

We are excited that the industry will be putting itself at the heart of helping to inspire and inform young people in Wales about the breadth of roles across the creative industries. Digital Discover! Creative Careers Week will work to support a diverse range of young people to learn about real jobs from those that do them, shining a light on the wide range of skills the sector needs and inspiring the next generation to consider creative careers available to them.

An initiative within the Creative Careers Programme Cymru (CCP Cymru), Digital Discover! Creative Careers Week will provide an online industry led careers programme that is available to schools, careers advisers, young people and new entrants to the sector, which will be accessible during the week itself and thereafter, when it is made available on the discovercreative.careers website and Discover! Creative Careers YouTube channel.

Throughout the week, young people will get to hear from a range of industry specialists about their careers journey.

Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Lord Elis-Thomas, said: “Skills has been identified as a priority for Creative Wales. As a fast-paced growing industry in Wales, it is important that we are able to meet the increased demand for a skilled workforce across the breadth of the Creative Industries sector – and we are delighted to support Creative & Cultural Skills on a programme working with young people to raise awareness and interest in the variety of creative career opportunities available in the sector.”

Ffilm Cymru’s Chief Executive Pauline Burt, comments: “Ffilm Cymru are delighted to collaborate in this important programme that aims to both improve the capacity and the diversity of the sector. This is about raising awareness of the wide range of jobs in the sector; the transferable skills that are relevant and the routes into and through the sector.”

The CCP Cymru programme is in its pilot year, and has already delivered training sessions to 225 careers advisers from across Wales, supporting their knowledge of the varied roles which make up the sector, and the transferability of skills and roles from one area to another.

The final event of the 2020 programme is to deliver an online conference on 9th December. Careers advisers will engage with industry professionals in interactive sessions where demonstrations of sector-specific skills will be given. This aims to improve awareness and understanding of the breadth of opportunities across the creative industries among careers advisers, thereby improving the advice and guidance given to young people.

Karen Newman, Finance Director and Interim CEO, Creative & Cultural Skills, said: “We recognise that guidance about the range of occupations in our sector is limited and the availability of opportunities is often misunderstood by young people and those that work with them. We want to help change this so a broader range of talent can enter the creative industries workforce in Wales, helping it flourish for years to come.”

ScreenSkills’ Chief Executive Seetha Kumar, said: “As the industry-led skills body for UK screen, we are really pleased to be working with our colleagues in Wales to help inform and inspire the next generation of talent about the opportunities in film and television, visual effects, animation and games. It is important to open up the sector to a greater diversity of talent and this programme will contribute to achieving that aim.”

CCP Cymru follows the success of the Creative Careers Programme in England, which launched in 2019 and delivered over 1000 hands-on experiences and introduce over 90,000 young people to the range of job roles the cultural sector. This programme will continue with its own Digital Discover! Week in early 2021, in partnership with ScreenSkills and the Creative Industries Federation.