91�ȱ�

91�ȱ� Teach > Teacher Support > Articles

Young people might have dreams of working in the creative industries, but struggle to know exactly how to pursue their ambitions.

By Mark Anderson, Career Coach

In this article for secondary teachers, Mark Anderson – a careers education expert – offers practical tips and activity suggestions for engaging students in a session about jobs in the creative industries.

Take a look around you. Pretty much everything you see is a result of someone being creative, whether it’s building a desk, designing a building or creating a software programme. Creativity is everywhere. Many students aspire to have a career that allows them to use their imaginative skills to create something or solve problems. For these young people, the good news is that the creative industries in the UK are booming.

In 2020 the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport revealed that . and .

We’re all consumers when it comes to the creative industries but how much do we really know about the range of jobs involved?

Take the film and TV industry for example. If you hang around for the closing credits of a TV show or a movie, you’ll see a wide range of familiar and unfamiliar job roles that go into making the show you’ve just been watching. Even for the roles we’re familiar with, such as director or producer, how much do we really know about what they involve on a day to day basis?

You can’t be what you can’t see

Despite the rising status of the creative industries, many parents remain concerned about the freelance nature of much of the work and the apparent lack of job security. So what should young people do if they express an interest in working in the creative industries? Well the first step is all about research and exploration. The more students are exposed to professionals working in these industries, the greater their knowledge and understanding will be. And who knows where that might lead?

Why not find out about local creative companies and invite them into the school for career events or assembly talks. These organisations may even offer work experience opportunities which are vital for these industries.

In the meantime, encourage your students to explore the wide range of jobs in the creative industries and how to get into them. After all, you can’t be what you can’t see.

What about relevant subjects?

GCSEs such as Music, Drama, Art and Design and Technology are a good starting point for many careers in the creative industries, but there are so many other career path options even without these GCSEs.

There are also a wide range of courses that are now available at colleges and universities, from Creative Media to Visual Effects for Film and TV. You don’t even have to go to university to work in the creative industries. Organisations like the 91�ȱ� offer apprenticeships in production and broadcasting.

Classroom activities

• Encourage your students to think of as many jobs or job sectors as possible that require creativity. To give them some assistance, ask them to look around and think of creative jobs related to what they can see.

• Play a game of ‘Who am I?’ Read out some descriptions of creative jobs from the 91�ȱ� Bitesize Careers website and ask your students to guess the occupation.

• Take a look at some of the creative apprenticeship opportunities at the 91�ȱ�. Find out about the skills required for the various roles. Then: Have an open discussion about the most likely students in the class that would be most suited for the role. It can be a real confidence booster when students recognise and verbalise their peer’s qualities; Discuss activities they can undertake over the next few months that will enable them to develop the skills required for such jobs. You can also have a discussion about transferable skills. Many of the skills required will be necessary for lots of jobs, not just the creative ones.

• Split the class into small groups and display a visual product. Ask each group to think of as many jobs as possible that go into making the product. Even if they don’t know the job title, they can still explain the role.

• Split the class into teams, then get the class to watch the closing credits of a TV show. Afterwards, ask your teams to write down as many job titles as they can remember. Then ask them to research some of these jobs on the Bitesize Careers website.