Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to help increase skills in the creative and arts sector.

As our world-leading creative sectors continue to grow and recover from the pandemic, the Government understands the importance of ensuring that the creative industries and the arts have the skills they need, both now and in the future. The DCMS-led Creative Industries Sector Vision, due to be published soon, will set out our long-term strategic vision for the sector to 2030. Focused on promoting growth, this vision will include consideration of the opportunities and challenges regarding the skills, workforce and talent pipeline for the sector.

The Schools White Paper (2022) also set out that the Department for Education would publish a Cultural Education Plan, working with DCMS and our arms-length bodies, in 2023. The Plan aims to articulate and highlight the importance of high-quality cultural education in schools; promote the social value of cultural and creative education; outline and support career progression pathways; address skills gaps; and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcome. The crossbench peer, Baroness Bull, has been appointed to chair the independent advisory panel helping to inform the plan.

The Government continues to support initiatives to boost training and employment opportunities in the arts and creative sectors. For example, DCMS supports the industry-led Creative Careers Programme, which between 2018 and 2020 showcased creative career pathways to over 115,000 pupils at over 1,500 schools across England. The programme, relaunched in 2022 with £950,000 of Government funding, will specifically target young people from under-represented backgrounds. It will do so in 77 priority areas across England, selected using data from the Government’s education and careers opportunity areas, and Levelling Up for Culture priority places.