The UK Creative Festival and Careers Fair 2024 opened its doors on 10-11^th July 2024 to various employers, organisations and young people at Dreamland, Margate.

The festival hosted an array of brilliant panel sessions, one of which Creative Estuary’s Project Officer Natalie Reuter, took part in. The session was called Creative Skills Development for Young People in Kent and Medway and explored various strategies for creative careers for young people.

Kickstarting the session was Alice Heggie, Group Head of Higher Education and Careers at East Kent College Group. Alice introduced the importance of cultural capital in young people.

Alice defined cultural capital as total familiarity with the legitimate culture of society and explained that society has created an environment where money unlocks accessibility. For example, cultural development is apparent in independent schools where money is invested directly into the arts. Lower income families may be unable to prioritise cultural development. This sparked roundtable discussions regarding how we can make cultural development more accessible to all.

Up next, was Royal College of Arts’ Rama Gheerawo, presenting the new models of leadership. Rama explained the three pillars that balance creative leadership, these being empathy, clarity and creativity. Everyone has leadership potential, however there are barriers to creative leadership including mindset, time, budget, risk and support. For young people, barriers also include an overloaded curriculum and funding. Roundtable discussions suggested that the education system needs to be reworked to allow opportunities for creative leadership.

Natalie Reuter gave an insightful presentation on forging new pathways and partnerships for creative careers which included an overview of the models Creative Estuary piloted through Re:Generation 2031, a skills development initiative which focused on developing the creative skills of young people in North Kent and South Essex through training and placements. She spoke about some key learnings and takeaways and our ongoing work in the region.

Reflecting on the session Natalie said, “it was a really valuable opportunity to connect with key creative and education stakeholders and discuss opportunities for new and alternative pathways into creative careers. My hope is we can continue these discussions into strategic actions that connects more young people to creative education and industry in the region.”

To close the session, Brad Levy shared the organisation’s priorities and tools to ensure that young people are informed, consulted and empowered to develop skills and awareness when it comes to careers.

The Kent and Medway Careers Hub want a more distributed leadership of careers by issuing staff, including head teachers and governors, with up-to-date information about creative industries and local companies. In addition to this, Kent and Medway Careers Hub use a tool called the Future Skills Questionnaire, providing the opportunity for young people to reflect on career-related knowledge and skills.

Alongside inspiring panel sessions, the UK Careers Festival hosted a free-to-attend Careers Fair, providing young people with the opportunity to meet leading organisations in the creative industries such as Industrial Light and Magic and BBC Studios as well as organisations that offer and connect young people to creative skills and experience, such as SupaJam and Kent Volunteers.