Executive Summary
This submission responds to the Department for Work and Pensions’ Young People and Work Report: Call for Evidence, which fed into Rt Hon Alan Milburn’s independent review of the rising number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). The subsequent interim report sets out the review’s emerging findings on the barriers shaping young people’s transitions into work.
This response focuses on young people’s aspirations to establish careers in the cultural and creative industries, and the barriers they face in doing so. This emphasis is important because the creative industries have been identified as one of the eight sectors in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy. The Creative Industries Sector Plan (UK Government, 2025) identifies the significance of the economic contribution of the cultural and creative industries and the challenge of building a resilient, skilled and diverse workforce. The cultural and creative industries workforce has a higher proportion of self-employed workers compared to the wider UK workforce and several of these subsectors typically comprise micro, small, and medium-sized businesses.
Rather than focus on finding employment, this response focuses on creating employment and how young people can understand and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. We highlight the changing nature of the labour market and the alignment of young people’s skills, experiences, aspirations and attitudes towards work and creative enterprise.
This submission suggests the following changes to cultural and creative industries careers guidance and resources:
- Review existing cultural and creative industries careers guidance and resources to reimagine how young people can understand and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities.
- Explore how creative methods can enable a variety of young people’s stories and experiences to be generated and shared for the benefit of cultural and creative careers guidance and resources.
- Equity and belonging must be embedded into cultural and creative industries careers guidance and resources because entrepreneurial opportunities are not equally accessible to young people.
Contributors:
Dr Emma Agusita, Senior Lecturer in Media Communications and Culture, Media and Creative Industries at the University of the West of England
Professor Dan Ashton, Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries at the University of Southampton
