The Creative Industries Federation warns that the Governments ambitions for the young people of Britain cannot be achieved without a radical shift in policy on school education and training.
Posted: 10/03/2022
It calls
for the Government to drop plans to make 90 per cent of students study the
traditional core curriculum called the EBacc.
It
further demands a proper audit of the education and training the UK needs for a
prosperous future as part of the Governments new industrial strategy.
A
Federation education paper published in October 2016 shows how the current focus on the
EBacc – alongside plans for apprenticeships – are limiting the life chances of
the next generation and will not achieve the Prime Ministers ambitions for
greater social mobility.
The
paper, Social Mobility and the Skills Gap – Creative Education Agenda 2016,
also highlights how current policies threaten the UKs standing as a global
creative power by failing to produce enough young people with the mix of
creative and technical skills needed.
The
EBacc, which includes no creative subjects, is encouraging a dramatic decline
in the take-up of them.
There are
further concerns about the Governments new apprenticeship levy which risks
undermining current training in the sector without tackling existing skills
shortages.
The
skills shortages are set to be exacerbated by Brexit, as the UK loses ready
access to skilled workers who have been plugging some of the gaps. Around 6.1
per cent of the creative industries workforce are non-UK Europeans.
John Kampfner,
chief executive of the Creative Industries Federation, said: We are failing to
produce enough young people with the technical and creative skills needed to
fill some of the most exciting careers in the fastest growing sector of the
economy. That is economic madness.
And
current education policies will not deliver the social mobility the Government
wants. To create genuine opportunities for all, we need to make sure we give
every young person, and not just those at the best schools, the chance to study
subjects that prepare them for those jobs.
Sir John
Sorrell, the designer, UK business ambassador and Federation founder and chair,
said: “If problems in education are not addressed and we fail to encourage
our creative talent, we will lose our position as a world leader. This is a
particular challenge now when Brexit will cut ready access to the wider European
workforce.”
Find a link to the paper in our Advice and Information section.
