Did you know that over 46,000 people work in creative and cultural industries in the East Midlands and that this figure is expected to grow by 35% in the next 8 years….?
Were you also aware that currently over 60 % of the creative and cultural workforce in the region are graduates and that according to recent figures the number of registered Creative Apprenticeships in the East Midlands doesn’t even reach triple figures?
With yesterday’s disheartening news that unemployment for 16 to 24 year olds is currently at its highest level for 17 years with 1 in 5 young people nationally not able to find a job; TMC is even more committed to working within the sector to support the development of high quality, accredited apprenticeship in the creative and cultural sectors in the region. Not only are we currently in the process of setting up 3 apprentices working with Leicester College and New College Nottingham, and a further 6 creative apprentices with creative and cultural organisations in the East Midlands, but working with the National Skills Academy - Creative & Cultural, our ambition is to provide high quality mutually beneficial employment opportunities for young people in arts venues, festivals and cultural organisations.
Read about the 10 myths to creative apprenticeships here:
http://nsa-ccskills.co.uk/news/ten-myths-about-creative-apprenticeships-updated
During February we are hosting a series of events for colleagues in the sector to find out more about the services offered by the Skills Academy and bring together arts and cultural organisations and employers, Founder Colleges and other educational settings together to discuss, collaborate and build creative solutions to local issues.
For more information about the National Skills Academy events visit http://www.themightycreatives.com/information/sector-development/skills-academy/ or contact Vikki Pearson vikki@themightycreatives.com.
And look out for more exciting news about TMC’s new apprenticeship opportunities in the next couple of days ….
Welcome to The Mighty Creatives (TMC) blog. A space to share, celebrate and explore.
Thursday 19 January 2012
Tuesday 10 January 2012
What's happening? Next steps for The Bank of TMC.
- support to our first 5 social enterprises to complete their business planning, register their new businesses and start trading
- raise the quality of our business development support, communications and marketing, by bringing on board new delivery partners
- extend our work with our Mighty Teams of young advocates and young investors
- adapt our 'offer' and build our networks to work with young people who are not in education, employment or training, or who are at risk of being so
- work with consultants to create our 'case for support' to attract donors and philanthropists to support the Bank
- complete our plans for the wider 'roll-out' of The Bank of TMC in 2012
In addition, we have also brought on board Louisa Day from digital communications agency Herdl and freelance whizz Adil Jaffer to collaborate with our team of young advocates on a new suite of marketing tools that will help The Bank 'speak' directly to our different target audiences - inspiring young people to get involved; explaining the benefits and possibilities to teachers, youth workers, parents, community activists, volunteers and all the other people in Leicester Shire we need to reach.
January and February will see the interim reports from our first group of young social entrepreneurs - their chance to let us know how their businesses are making money, empowering people and communities and trading responsibly.
Between now and March, the team will continue to develop our work on fundraising and promoting our offer, with a particular focus on how we can extend our collaborative work with the Mighty Teams of young people that help lead the Bank of TMC and inspire their peers. While there is much to be done and many challenges coming our way through austerity and general down-heartedness, we feel that we can continue to make a positive difference for and with young people.
Monday 9 January 2012
2012 blog post from TMC Chief Executive
There are many blogs from Chief Executives at the start of 2012. They assess the world of children and young people, the social and economic challenges facing the country and opportunities in the year ahead. I want to focus a little closer to home, looking at what we have achieved in our first 3 years of being The Mighty Creatives and to look at what’s coming next.
Starting in 2009, we secured responsibility for Creative Partnerships in the East Midlands and rapidly developed a rich portfolio of additional programmes with the MLA, Big Lottery and other funders. This broad and ambitious body of work has given TMC and our partners the opportunity to engage with:
• Over 75,000 children and young people
• Over 350 schools
• Over 5,300 families/parents
• Over 4,500 teachers/creative practitioners
• Over 1,100 participants from community groups
[Source: “Evaluation of The Mighty Creatives”, November 2011, FOCUS]
As many of you will be aware, Creative Partnerships came to an end in the Autumn of 2011, concluding £6.9m of investment in the region’s schools and creative economy between 2009 and 2012. At our recent “Creative & Connected” open space event in Derby, delegates asked the question: “Was Creative Partnerships worth it?” The answer appears to be: “Creative Partnerships was definitely worth it! But we collectively want to ensure that the legacy is accessible and the knowledge and learning is not lost.” Now that we have undertaken the complex task of closing this world-leading programme, we will turn our focus on its legacy, evidence and impact.
But we have needed to secure and change TMC first.
In 2011, we were successful in securing Arts Council England’s new Bridge role, joining Arts Council’s national portfolio to help meet its goal of ensuring every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts and culture. Starting on 1st April 2012, we will work with artists, arts and cultural organisations to help develop their work with children and young people to ensure more children and young people experience the benefits of the arts. In order to get ready for this position, we have worked with Arts Council and our development partners, Arts Learning East Midlands, to agree what needs to be done. We have also needed to restructure our organisation, resulting in a number of loved and valued colleagues leaving TMC in 2012.
Preparation for the Bridge starts now with a period of fact-finding, intelligence gathering and analysis about the state of the arts in the region and what the priorities should be for enabling broader, deeper and higher quality access for more children and young people. Karen Birch will be leading this work as our new Programme Director and will be communicating with our partners very soon about these initiatives and opportunities.
Alongside our Bridge building work, TMC will also pursue Planet TMC, our business strategy focused on young people’s creativity in all its forms. 2012 will see us making a significant contribution to the Cultural Olympiad through somewhereto_, Journals, Big Dance, Dress the World and WEYA. We will also advocate for young people’s participation in enterprise through our work on the Bank of TMC, provide vocational training through Mobile TMC and promote the new Social Enterprise Qualification. Our work with learning settings continues through collaboration with a number of school clusters across the region and the direct delivery of services in Nottinghamshire and Northwest Leicestershire. And our commitment to empowering young people to make positive change happen strengthens through the launch of our MyWorld platform and associated leadership programmes.
If we had a New Year’s resolution, it would be twofold: to help more children and young people influence our organisation; and, to establish stronger collaborations with our many partners in the region and beyond. Despite the challenges around us, our combined passions can deliver even greater results for children and young people in 2012. And that isn’t a bad way to start the year.
Richard Clark
Chief Executive, The Mighty Creatives
Starting in 2009, we secured responsibility for Creative Partnerships in the East Midlands and rapidly developed a rich portfolio of additional programmes with the MLA, Big Lottery and other funders. This broad and ambitious body of work has given TMC and our partners the opportunity to engage with:
• Over 75,000 children and young people
• Over 350 schools
• Over 5,300 families/parents
• Over 4,500 teachers/creative practitioners
• Over 1,100 participants from community groups
[Source: “Evaluation of The Mighty Creatives”, November 2011, FOCUS]
As many of you will be aware, Creative Partnerships came to an end in the Autumn of 2011, concluding £6.9m of investment in the region’s schools and creative economy between 2009 and 2012. At our recent “Creative & Connected” open space event in Derby, delegates asked the question: “Was Creative Partnerships worth it?” The answer appears to be: “Creative Partnerships was definitely worth it! But we collectively want to ensure that the legacy is accessible and the knowledge and learning is not lost.” Now that we have undertaken the complex task of closing this world-leading programme, we will turn our focus on its legacy, evidence and impact.
But we have needed to secure and change TMC first.
In 2011, we were successful in securing Arts Council England’s new Bridge role, joining Arts Council’s national portfolio to help meet its goal of ensuring every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts and culture. Starting on 1st April 2012, we will work with artists, arts and cultural organisations to help develop their work with children and young people to ensure more children and young people experience the benefits of the arts. In order to get ready for this position, we have worked with Arts Council and our development partners, Arts Learning East Midlands, to agree what needs to be done. We have also needed to restructure our organisation, resulting in a number of loved and valued colleagues leaving TMC in 2012.
Preparation for the Bridge starts now with a period of fact-finding, intelligence gathering and analysis about the state of the arts in the region and what the priorities should be for enabling broader, deeper and higher quality access for more children and young people. Karen Birch will be leading this work as our new Programme Director and will be communicating with our partners very soon about these initiatives and opportunities.
Alongside our Bridge building work, TMC will also pursue Planet TMC, our business strategy focused on young people’s creativity in all its forms. 2012 will see us making a significant contribution to the Cultural Olympiad through somewhereto_, Journals, Big Dance, Dress the World and WEYA. We will also advocate for young people’s participation in enterprise through our work on the Bank of TMC, provide vocational training through Mobile TMC and promote the new Social Enterprise Qualification. Our work with learning settings continues through collaboration with a number of school clusters across the region and the direct delivery of services in Nottinghamshire and Northwest Leicestershire. And our commitment to empowering young people to make positive change happen strengthens through the launch of our MyWorld platform and associated leadership programmes.
If we had a New Year’s resolution, it would be twofold: to help more children and young people influence our organisation; and, to establish stronger collaborations with our many partners in the region and beyond. Despite the challenges around us, our combined passions can deliver even greater results for children and young people in 2012. And that isn’t a bad way to start the year.
Richard Clark
Chief Executive, The Mighty Creatives
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