South Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Cultural and Creative Industries Workforce Development Network Artswork Ltd

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1 LSIS Flexibility and Innovation Fund South Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Cultural and Creative Industries Workforce Development Network Artswork Ltd Project synopsis The project focused on employment and work based learning, with the aim of building a collaborative network of training providers and employers to develop a strategic and structured approach to providing entry routes into the cultural and creative sector. Key findings: importance of pre employability/pre apprenticeships the lack of employer awareness of the benefits of apprenticeships increased outcomes to be achieved from a collaborative network potential for a tailored creative apprenticeship programme Project aims The aims of the project were to: 1) Establish a collaborative employer network to develop work based learning routes and entry routes into the creative sector. 2) To promote awareness of training skills development and work based learning ultimately to help young people seeking employment in the sector. 3) To unite a wide range of training providers (FE, HE, community) in the delivery of formalised work based learning. 4) To explore ways of overcoming the reliance by sector employers on unpaid volunteers and interns. 5) To develop a more strategic and collaborative approach informed by the evaluation of the Future Jobs Fund and Cultural Takeover programmes. In terms of innovation Artswork feels it has been breaking new ground in the cultural and creative sector in and across the South East and beyond. We have received a lot of interest from other Local Authority areas and Local Enterprise Partnerships about ways to replicate the network, about the pre-employability programmes and about the creative apprenticeship pilot model that we have established. We have attracted considerable interest from the National Apprenticeship Service, from Arts Council England and from the National Skills Academy, Creative and Cultural indeed all these organisations have been very helpful and have also stressed the formative nature of the work that has been taking place. Through the project we have also made contact with Dr Alison Fuller (University of Southampton) and Dr Lorna Unwin who were commissioned by the National Apprenticeship Service to research and report on Expansive Apprenticeship models. We are currently Page 1

2 discussing the possibility that our work delivered by the FIF project will be featured as a national best practice case study in their research/report. Project delivery Over the last 12 months, we have: 1) Established a collaborative employer network - which has met 3 times - to develop work based learning routes and entry routes into the creative sector. 2) Promoted awareness of training skills development and work based learning ultimately to help young people seeking employment in the sector. 3) Worked to unite a wide range of training providers (FE, HE, community) in the delivery of formalised work based learning. 4) Explored ways of overcoming the reliance by sector employers on unpaid volunteers and interns. 5) Developed a more strategic and collaborative approach to work based learning informed by the monitoring and evaluation of the other Artswork programmes including its Future Jobs Fund and Cultural Takeover programmes As a result of the programme, we have implemented the following: Employer Network We delivered the project by organising a number of activities to engage employers, providers and intermediaries. We held three large network meetings and also invited employers to form a core advisory group. They were enthusiastic to be involved and to help shape their own solutions. At the suggestion of the employers, we carried out primary research with the 15 employers to understand their priorities for workforce development. This gave us the hard evidence for the interest in and need for piloting pre-employability/pre-apprenticeship summer programmes and for the development of an employer led Creative Apprenticeship pilot We now have a dynamic network of cultural, training and skills organisations with clear terms of reference and action plan, with a network attendance list of over 100 individuals representing about 60 organisations and chaired by the University of Winchester. Training providers of all types have attended the network meetings and this has provided a dialogue with employers about their needs and potential opportunities for young people Pre-employability/Pre-apprenticeship summer programmes Two summer programmes were commissioned and delivered by network partners with a further evaluative film project commissioned alongside. We wanted to use the creative settings of theatre and urban music, to motivate and inspire learners and also to embed personal learning and thinking skills and qualifications into the programme. A DVD entitled, Mt Summer: creative employment and the world of work! - is available summarising the approach, learning and outcomes Towards the Creative Apprenticeship The starting point in terms of knowledge about apprenticeships from employers was very low. There was little understanding that apprentices needed to be paid and were employees, as opposed to work experience placements. Because of the reliance in the sector on unpaid volunteers and interns, this took a lot of time to get our messages through. Our solution which we are now finalising for launch early in was based on the Cultural and Creative Skills National Skills Academy alternative delivery model: it will bring together Artswork and North Hertfordshire College. Artswork will act as the specialist industry provider and drawing down funds for apprentice training via North Hertfordshire College. We are working therefore to implement a new business model for the delivery of Creative Apprenticeships for the benefit of employers and learners in the sector Page 2

3 We have stimulated a new and exciting approach where a Local Authority is going to share one apprentice with two small arts organisations. We have also explored the possibility of funding to support NEET learners in local authority areas and with ESF funded providers and these talks are ongoing. The work that we have completed to develop a Creative Apprenticeship model has been based on better meeting the needs of sector employers and young people. Through this work we have built a relationship through the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire with the Solent LEP. We are now exploring the potential for Artswork to become a NSA-CCS pilot cluster lead to build on the work to date and also develop a mentoring/co-mentoring approach with a partner organisation in the Brighton and Hove/East/West Sussex area to build a linked network. The only thing we would do differently next time would be to plan and allocate more of the budget for management time within a similar project. Project outcomes The project not only achieved its original aims, but a great deal more as well. We had not originally set out to develop a new business model for the delivery of Creative Apprenticeships, but with the encouragement of the employers in the network, this is what we did. We have had tremendous support and advice from a number of national organisations in the creative sector and from NSA-CCS founder college, North Hertfordshire College. This means that we have now been able to create a new business model for the delivery of Creative Apprenticeships for the benefit of employers and learners in the sector. The key outcomes achieved were: A dynamic network of cultural, training and skills organisations with clear terms of reference and action plan, with a network membership of over 100 individuals representing about 60 organisations. 15 employers are now engaged in a core group to help shape the pilot work. Delivery of 2 pre-employability/pre-apprenticeships summer programmes as follows: - 15 young people participated in the two-week long Making Theatre: Gaining Skills summer pre-employability summer programme - 20 young people participated in the SoCo Music Festival pre-employability programme - We have two evaluation reports from the summer schools. - In addition, the associated performances had a wide audience reach totalling a further 1500 children, young people and families. The associated DVD has been already been shared with the Cultural Employers Network, with the PUSH Quality Places Panel (with representatives of 18 LAs) and the Culture and Heritage Arts Organisation network of Southampton. The Chair of the PUSH Quality Places Panel (who is also Leader of Portsmouth City Council) has agreed to send a letter to all 18 LAs to encourage them to consider taking on a Creative Apprentice. Training providers of all types attended the network meetings and this provided a dialogue with employers about their needs and potential opportunities for young people. We have stimulated a new and exciting approach where a Local Authority is going to share one apprentice with two small arts organisations. We have also explored the possibility of funding to support NEET learners in local authority areas and with ESF funded providers, and these talks are ongoing. We have established a network for young people who participated in the summer programmes to be able to monitor their progress (subject to their participation) with a social media site as a shared focus. Page 3

4 Via the network meetings we have facilitated a new dialogue between secondary schools, HE, FE and community providers. The work that we have completed to develop a Creative Apprenticeship model has been based on better meeting the needs of sector employers and young people. We did not progress two of the original outcome areas: 1) These were the plan to focus on work experience placements - the primary research we carried out with our 15 employers demonstrated that they believed that the current arrangements they had for work placements worked satisfactorily. During the course of the project however, Artswork continued alongside the LSIS funded programme - to deliver Future Jobs Fund work placements as well as work experience placements for 14 to 19 year olds. The evaluations of these continue to feed into the ongoing work of the Network. 2) The second outcome that we decided was not a priority was to establish a database of information on the sector training provision. It was felt that this already existed as developed by other public sector bodies and future developments were in train with the launch of the new All Age Guidance Service website. The only unforeseen circumstance was the impact on a number of employers in our network who, during the course of the project learnt that their Arts Council England funding was being cut or reduced from April This meant that their primary focus had to be on business planning for the future and it also meant that they were less likely to be able to invest in an apprenticeship post or even find time to attend the network meetings. We also found that the three members of the project steering group spent about 50% more time on the project than they had envisaged at the start of the project. This was due to the complexities of the nature of the project work. Project impact The impact of the project has been to: Raise awareness of the benefits of employing a creative apprentice and we have firm interest from 8 employers who have wage cover for the posts. We have developed an alternative delivery model of apprenticeships by working with the National Skills Academy and learning from best practice across England. We are able to offer the opportunity to small employers to share an apprentice by using the carousel model and the option of the using the services of an Apprentice Training Agency (ATA) There has been also been a formative and direct impact on Artswork as the project lead. We have now built into our strategic business plan a focus on developing work based learning programmes for pre-apprenticeship/ pre-employability programmes as well as to deliver the apprenticeship pilot. Additional impact has been to raise the profile and importance of the creative sector with the board members of the Solent LEP Employment and Skills Board. By making presentations to them about this project, we believe we have seen some shift in their view of the economic importance of the sector. There are real and shared concerns from network members about the demise of Connexions and a careers service to ensuring that young people and parents are able to receive good information about careers and career paths in the sector. To gauge the views of stakeholders and members of the network, we used the evaluation form to ask for their views at the close of network meeting on 29 September. 44 people attended, 22 people completed the evaluation form. The question we asked them to score out of 10 (10 being highest score): Value of the network meetings to you and your organisation. The average score for the value of the meetings to them was 8.3. Page 4

5 Sharing of project findings We have developed three shareable resources which will be uploaded to the LSIS Excellence Gateway. These are: 1) Case Study: SoCo Music Festival and Little Red and the Lonely Wolf - a short film showcasing our two pre-apprenticeship/pre-employability summer schools, which used the context of urban music and theatre skills to engage young people. 2) Case Study: A sector specific workforce needs analysis questionnaire template used to gather information on employer workforce development needs and opportunities for apprentice posts, which other providers and/or employers can personalise and use. 3) Case Study: Specialist industry provider apprenticeship delivery model working in partnership with the Creative and Cultural Skills National Skills Academy. These three shareable resources will be widely disseminated via our various networks. A key strength is that our network now has over 100 member organisations and key partners, and we will ask them to upload the information to their websites. Page 5