Gov.uk: Membership of new Creative Industries Taskforce announced
// Caroline Norbury // creative industries // UK Government
Responding to the government’s confirmation of 50% cuts to higher education creative subjects, Caroline Norbury MBE, CEO, Creative UK said:
“We are deeply disappointed by the Education Secretary’s guidance to the Office for Students to proceed with 50% cuts to higher education creative subjects in England.
To imply that creative education is not “value for money” shows a worrying lack of awareness of the vital and valuable contribution the Creative Industries make in this country, and directly contradicts the government’s own Plan for Growth, in which the sector is recognised for the pivotal role it will play in our future.
In our report, The UK Creative Industries, launched today, we find that with the right investment, the creative industries could generate 300,000 new jobs by 2025, driving the UK’s economic recovery. But without this, key parts of the country risk being left behind. That investment is not just in creative businesses and ideas, it is the creative skills and training needed to unlock our sector’s potential and produce its future workforce.
More than this, creative skills – developed through creative education – are exactly the skills we need more of in all parts of the economy. Creative education is not a ‘nice to have’, it is essential to our future, and must be available to everyone, in all parts of the UK, no matter where they live or how much money they have.
Our report today reveals that creativity has the power to not only shape the UK’s post-pandemic recovery, but to fuel the ideas needed to tackle the many other challenges our society faces. But this cannot be achieved without investment in every stage of the creative talent pipeline.”
