Why do creative industries still favour the privileged?
"It is remarkable how many positions of wealth, influence, celebrity and power in our society are held by individuals who were privately educated," Michael Gove noted last year. In 2013, John Major also cried shock that power in contemporary Britain appears to be held by the affluent middle class or the privately educated.
But it's not just political figures that are noticing the impact of privilege; research suggests that creative graduates who are trying to get jobs believe the creative workplace is only for a privileged few.
It's challenging for any university course or industry sector to say which variables graduates need to gain employment because gaining employment is so complex. Extensive research has found that many socioeconomic variables come into play for the graduate seeking work; their age, sex, nationality, class, family background, geographical area, qualifications, where they were educated and what they studied are all significant factors. It's difficult to unravel the separate threads in particular cases to isolate which variables are the most pertinent.
However, targeted research in particular contexts can reveal contemporary trends. As a researcher, I wanted to find out directly from undergraduates and graduates what really matters in the creative world, using a variety of outlets to gain the necessary feedback. The findings suggested that creative undergraduates and graduates overwhelmingly believe that confidence, contacts and money are the most important things they need to get work.
Having contacts is the most salient, because gaining employment in industries like theatre, dance, architecture, fine art, film, radio and publishing needs industry contacts, who act as gatekeepers. Creative working is seen to be made up of privileged clubs which, unless you know someone, are closed to new members.
Confidence and money were also seen to increase graduate chances of breaking into the creative industries. You have to believe you have the potential and money is needed to subsidise long periods of low paid (or unpaid) work experience, to manage self-employment, contract-working or fixed-term working with different employers where payment is unpredictable. Most work is London-centric, which also adds to living costs.
These factors are the foundations of affluent middle class and private education, so it's not surprising those from these backgrounds are more likely to break in.
Government-led employability strategies don't tend to focus on areas of confidence, contacts and money. Instead, they focus on graduates developing the skills to meet with what employers say is wanted in their industries. The idea is that by acquiring the necessary skills, the graduate then gets rewarded with a job.
But this research suggests that skills are only the baseline for potential employment in creative industries. These undergraduates and graduates perceived success in creative work as achievable through social, cultural and economic capital. Creative work is not about skills, it is mostly about privilege.
The graduates in this research thought that government-led employability strategies had little relevance to them. They said creative work is different; they won't have one job so one size never fits all, and their work is about creative interaction and finding solutions within a global environment.
"Complexability", not employability, is needed. This is having the necessary social, cultural and economic capital, along with a sophisticated creative agency, which helps graduates learn to work in different ways, with different people, places and cultures, often collaborating across disciplines and boundaries. The graduates said they want to be supported to develop this complexability because without it the privileged circles of paid work remained impenetrable.
But why should Britain support them and make creative work more inclusive?
Creativity makes social, cultural and economic sense. British film producer, David Puttnam, believes that creativity is the only tool we have left to solve many of our seemingly insolvable problems. Puttnam thinks Britain is strangled by 19th century examination policies and 20th century teaching and learning strategies while trying to engage with 21st century students who want contemporary and innovative ways of working.
The UK needs to modernise its policies and strategies to bring new members into the creative economy. Diversity in the creative economy is needed for it to flourish. As Major and Gove have observed, privilege often replicates privilege. We need to find new ways to open up the membership of many privileged circles.
Rachel Higdon is an education consultant and a university lecturer in academic development.
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