Creative Industries Council

The Creative Industries Council is a great example of how bringing together government and business builds a talent pipeline and ensures the country benefits from an industry where the UK really does lead the world.

The council was set up to lower the barriers to growth such as access to finance and export markets, regulation, intellectual property but, also crucially skills.

Its Creative Careers Programme aims to engage with more than 160,000 school-age students and enable around two million young people to access great advice about pursuing a creative career.

The programme is being delivered by Creative Industries Federation, ScreenSkills and Creative & Cultural Skills, in collaboration with The Careers & Enterprise Company and Speakers for Schools that helps inspire the next generation of creatives.

Additionally the council is helping to raise the profile of Createch, which brings together creative skills and emerging technologies like 5G, virtual reality and artificial intelligence to create new ways of engaging audiences and to inspire business growth and investment.

Over £5bn has been invested in UK Createch businesses by VCs since 2017, and Createch investment recently jumped 16 per cent.

It also oversees collaboration between higher education through the Creative Clusters programme comprising nine creative clusters across the UK and a new Policy and Evidence Centre, led by Nesta in partnership with 13 universities. The programme combines world-class research talent with companies and organisations in a first of its kind research and development investment.

Crucial to the success of the council is its structure – it is co-chaired by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. In the four years since its creation the council has set the standard for cross-departmental working.