Provided by Institute of Education EPrints
Introduction
The creative and cultural sector has been recognised since the mid-1990a as making major
contribution to the UK economy and as a sector which many young people aspire to enter
(DCMS, 1998)1. Because New Labour assumes that qualifications are the ‘magic bullet’ that
guarantees employability in the knowledge economy (Keep, 1999), the government has
concentrated on strengthening academic and vocational qualifications in order to support
learners’ aspirations and employability in the sector (DfES, 1997; 2004)2. Recent research has
shown, however, that academic and vocational qualifications struggle to facilitate access and
learning and employability in the creative and cultural sector, because employers are not
convinced that graduates have developed, or that the Advanced Apprenticeship Programme
(AAP) develops, the forms of ‘vocational practice’, that is, combination of knowledge, skill
and judgement which they are looking for (Guile, 2006).
In the case of the vocational qualifications, specifically the focus of this article -
apprenticeship uptake is sluggish. This is partly because the government rhetoric about the
flexibility of the AAP amounts to little more than an opportunity for employers to tailor the
AAP Blueprint, rather than to design apprenticeships according to their needs. These concerns
are compounded because many employers perceive the mandatory qualification outcomes in
the AAP’s blueprint - National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), Technical Certificates
(TCs) and Key Skills (KSs) as serving ‘educational’ goals because they are promoted by the
DfES to enhance academic progression, rather than as genuine attempts to develop the sector-
specific vocational knowledge and skill that they feel it is important for apprentices to
develop (Okumoto, field notes). This reluctance to get involved with the AAP does not mean
that employers in the creative and cultural sector are un-interested in training at Level 3,
rather that they are distancing themselves from the existing emphasis in the AAP on NVQs,
TCs and KSs as well as the administrative burden of participating in the programme. They
would prefer, as our research and research from organisations such as Skillscene3 who provide
education and training support to the performing arts sector has shown, to design
1 The UK is ranked third in the creative economy behind America and Japan. The UK’s creative and cultural
sector generates revenues of around £115 billion and employs 1.3 million people. They contribute over £10
billion in exports and account for over five per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and, moreover, output
from these sectors grew by more than twice that of the economy as a whole in the late 1990s DCMS, 2001).
2 Skillset, C&C Skills and e-skills UK are currently developing the following qualifications for their respective
sectoral niches. They are: ‘General Qualifications’ that aim to promote awareness about the creative and cultural
sectors - such as GCSE and GCE A levels; ‘Career choice Qualifications’ that aim to inform and support career
choice by offering practical or ‘taster’ opportunities - such as through the 14-19 Diplomas; and, ‘Preparatory
Qualifications’ that aim to prepare learners for entry to employment such as the Advance Apprenticeship
Programme and Foundations Degrees.
33 Skillscene is an industry-led organisation which aims to encompass and support skills development in the live
arts. Skillscene is developing a modular qualifications framework to recognise work-based learning, ranging
form basic entry level through to degree level and beyond (www.skillscene.com/about.htm).