National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural Second Annual Industry Conference Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 March 2011

The two-day event was oversubscribed and fully booked, and included over 130 delegates spanning the length and breadth of the UK and the full range of our diverse sector. Each day featured a morning of talks about the industry’s strengths and potential for growth, with speeches from Kate Castle (Dance South West and Chief Executive Officer of Pavilion Dance), Paul Latham (Chair of the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural and Chief Operating Officer, Live Nation) and Alison Wenham (Chair and Chief Executive, Association of independent Music), who launched the Music Blueprint for Creative & Cultural Skills, the Sector Skills Council. In the afternoon, industry leaders convened a series of lively and informative seminars, designed to encourage discussion, the sharing of expertise and industry insight.

In addition to speakers from Founder Colleges in the Skills Academy’s network – including Stratford-upon-Avon and Gateshead – representatives also attended from English National Opera, the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Festival Republic. The range of attendees also demonstrated the importance of the Skills Academy’s membership network (now over 230 strong) and Paul Latham spoke about its possibilities, highlighting how a small contribution from each organisation could completely change the skills landscape in England today.

The conference was also addressed by John Hayes, Minister for Business Innovation & Skills, via a pre-recorded video message. He drew attention to the timeless importance of creative skills and praised in particular the Skills Academy’s commitment to apprenticeships (‘changing lives by changing life chances’). He highlighted the Government’s commitment to the apprenticeship schemes, and pledged their support:

‘We mean, though our concentration on the apprenticeships system and through the efforts we’ve made to provide funding, to make apprenticeships the pivot of what we want to do in terms of skills, to build more opportunities in the creative and cultural sector for those who want to use the apprentice program to crystallise the [skills] competencies that I’ve described.’

At the end of the first day, there was a major industry dinner for 90 guests, including several apprentices from Birmingham Hippodrome, Live Nation and others, to allow people to meet and catch up with other professionals. The dinner was addressed by Simon Waugh (Chief Executive of the National Apprenticeship Service), Paul Latham and Pauline Tambling (Managing Director of the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural), all of whom congratulated the attendees on their work in the industry.

Speaking to the industry dinner, Simon Waugh said:

‘The creative industries aren’t like other industries that have apprentices – your approach is innovative, finding ways to work with the varying business sizes that form the creative and cultural sector. The creative industries are a significant part of the UK economy, and we want to ensure that the sector continues to grow and that individuals have the right skills to do this’.

Paul Latham also encouraged members to nominate employers and apprentices from the creative and cultural sector for this year’s National Apprenticeship Awards, particularly as the Skills Academy has been instrumental in increasing the number of creative apprenticeships from zero in 2008 to over 500 in 2011.

Overall, the event gave everyone attending an opportunity to network with colleagues from different areas of the country, consider new approaches to the industry going forward, and celebrate what the sector can contribute to the UK in the future.