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Creative & Cultural Skills issues Diversity and Equality statement
Creative & Cultural Skills, the industry-led Sector Skills Council for advertising, craft, cultural heritage, design, music and the literary, visual and performing arts issued a statement on diversity and equality.
Tom Bewick, Chief Executive, Creative and Cultural Skills, said: “We aim to secure a commitment to practice diversity and equalities across the creative and cultural industries as the best means of extending opportunity and delivering commercial and organisational success.
"Our research shows that the workforce is 95% white, with little variation across the Nations and English regions, including London. There are also more men in the workforce, 61% compared with 54% across the UK and low numbers of disabled people in the workforce. Clearly identifying numbers of disabled people in the workforce is made difficult due to differences between Government statistics and industry evidence.
"Our approach is to embed work on diversity and equalities across all Creative & Cultural Skills projects and campaigns. To date this is being delivered by:
Creative Apprenticeships: In the design of the qualification, plans for the recruitment of apprentices and the development of support for businesses and organisations employing apprentices.
Young Apprentices: This programme takes gifted and talented young people aged 14-16 from diverse backgrounds in inner city and rural schools to work with a range of employers within our sectors.
Cultural Leadership Programme: Through the network pilots for example Women in Museums, the Powerbrokers development days for emerging Black and Ethnic Minority leaders and a programme for disabled leaders. www.culturalleadership.org.uk
Creative Knowledge Lab: In the design of the site and content, which will provide clear and accessible information on career development, training and education choices and wider industry information from a user perspective.
"Diversity is one of the priorities for the Creative Blueprint: the sector skills agreement for the industries we serve. There are currently two areas of work, development of a diversity Index and a campaign to promote the business benefits of a diverse workforce. The index provides a way for businesses to assess their performance on diversity and gives a basis for improvement. Future research will show changes in numbers across the workforce and look to improving information where there is not clear agreement on numbers.
"As a company we constantly review our working practices and work to improve how we do business.”
We welcome views on the issues, ideas for action and information about good practice. Please email info@ccskills.org.uk
Tom Bewick, Chief Executive, Creative and Cultural Skills, said: “We aim to secure a commitment to practice diversity and equalities across the creative and cultural industries as the best means of extending opportunity and delivering commercial and organisational success.
