Creative Industries Federation launch Creative Education Agenda

Knowledge Quarter Partner the Creative Industries Federation have launched their Creative Education Agenda. The agenda, launched at the Institution of Civil Engineers on 13th May, aims to highlight concerns about the narrow focus some schools and policy makers have on science, technology and maths without art, drama, music, design or other similar subjects.

The report calls to action 6 key areas:

1. Making sure that all children and young people are offered a high quality cultural and creative education. This means that all children have the opportunity to have a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts 3, mathematics) education that also develops creativity, technology and enterprise across the curriculum. Currently England is the only nation in the United Kingdom not to have a national plan.

2. Ofsted should not judge a school to be ‘outstanding’ without evidence of a quality cultural and creative offer in the curriculum, supported by extracurricular activities.

3. A creative subject must be part of the EBacc.

4. Universities, in particular those in the Russell Group, should review their selection criteria in order to positively encourage a mixed portfolio of qualifications at Key Stages 4 and 5.

5. Every secondary school should be responsible for publishing the destinations of all pupils for three years after their leaving date.

6. There should be a national creative apprenticeship scheme supported by more robust and detailed data on pipeline supply of creative and technical talent.

Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) figures show that 36.5% of top engineers have art or design as an A or AS level and 35.4% play a musical instrument. Lack of proper arts education damages engineering as much as it hurts creative industries or the arts, so we are uniting with enlightened voices from the STEM world to highlight the importance of arts and science together – making STEAM from STEM!

Click here to read the full report.