Poor denied chance at creative jobs

Press TV, 5th December 2010

Studies suggest creative industries are turning into a monopoly of the rich because employment in such jobs depends heavily on connections rather than ability.

The Social Market foundation (SMF) said in a report that creative industries such as advertising, architecture and journalism are out of the reach with poorer individuals as they lack work experience which is in turn due to their inability to pay for living costs when doing relevant informal jobs.

“Contacts are very important for getting into the sector because word-of-mouth recruitment is more common than formal recruitment methods,” said Ryan Shorthouse a social policy researcher who has prepared the report.

Meanwhile, Alan Milburn, a former social mobility politician in the last Labour government who has contributed a chapter to the report said the main issue preventing people from poorer backgrounds to enter the creative industry is lack of proper “opportunity”.

"It's not that many young people do not have aspirations; it is that they are blocked. It is not that they do not have talent... It is not ability that is unevenly distributed in our society, it is opportunity," Milburn said.

Milburn's point about lack of exposure to the creative jobs was echoed by Paul Collard, chief executive of Creativity, Culture and Education, which supported the report.

“More affluent parents… expose their children from early on to museums, theatres and musical instruments. If you do nothing as a government, then rich people will get these jobs,” he said.

Collard also criticized the government for cutting plans to introduce children to creative jobs at school.

I think this has always been the case.