Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support the growth of the creative industries (a) through the Creative Careers Programme and (b) generally.

The creative industries are worth £124 billion to the UK’s economy and employ over 2.4 million people. As a sector in which the UK excels today, and which will propel us forwards tomorrow, the Creative Industries have been announced as one of the eight growth-driving sectors within the Industrial Strategy. As part of this, we will develop a Sector Plan which will be focused on driving growth and opportunity for creative businesses across the country. As a first step towards delivering the Sector Plan, the government has announced a £60 million package of support to drive growth, including £40 million investment for start-up video games studios, British music and film exports and creative businesses outside of London.

By providing £3 million to expand the Creative Careers Programme (CCP), the Government will continue to broaden and diversify the talent pipeline in the creative industries, through giving young people the opportunity to learn more about career pathways, and directly engage with creative workplaces and employers.

The CCP will target more young people from priority areas, which are currently identified as those places where children face the greatest disadvantage in accessing information about careers in the creative industries. The programme is designed to raise young people’s awareness of creative careers and pathways into them by providing specialist advice and information. It seeks to boost opportunities and support for young people aged 11 - 18 from backgrounds that are under-represented in the creative industries.