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Creative & Cultural Skills is one of the Sector Skills Councils established by the UK Government in 2005 to foster the development of a skilled workforce.
It covers crafts, cultural heritage, jewelry, design, music, performing, literary and visual arts. It was created to bridge the gap between industry, education and the government, as well as to give employers an effective influence over education and the skills developed in the U.K.
Its founder was Tony Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead (2004–2009), and the founder Chief Executive was Tom Bewick (2004–2010) who, as a special adviser to the Labour Government, designed the policy for establishing SSCs across the UK industrial economy. The current chair is Donald Hyslop.
Creative & Cultural Skills' registered office is The Backstage Centre, High House Purfleet, Essex which it built and opened in 2013. Its staff are based across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Established in April 2009, the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural is a network of more than 500 employers from the creative industries and over 40 Further Education Colleges across nine English regions, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.
Throughout the year, the Academy runs various events, including Careers events and an annual industry conference. In Autumn 2010, for example, the Academy delivered 25 career events across the nation which featured practical and informative day programmes focusing on backstage, technical, and administrative roles in the industry. Additionally, NSA Founder Colleges and Industry Members collaborate to provide teenagers with the opportunity to get a taste of what goes on behind the scenes of the world’s biggest events, as well as giving them the chance to tackle professionally set challenges as part of their course work.
Creative & Cultural Skills also maintains Creative Choices, a website specifically for young people which provides information and advice about creative careers. [1] Features include 'Ask an Expert', where users can ask questions to people already working in the industry.
Since 2013, Creative & Cultural Skills has been running the Creative Employment Programme, which is funded with a £15 million grant from Arts Lottery through Arts Council England. This programme incentivises creative sector employers to take on apprentices and paid interns.
The Skills Academy has developed a technical theatre, events and music training centre called The Backstage Centre in Purfleet, Essex [2] as part of High House Production Park at High House Purfleet. The building houses training that could not otherwise be delivered nationally due to space and time restrictions in existing technical theatre training and performance spaces, and exposes learners to top level, world class technical theatre and live music professionals, companies and bands in a unique training environment. The design incorporates a large main space of 875 m2 with a 17m ceiling and a number of other training spaces including a CAD studio, lighting and audio-visual training studios, generic training spaces, a recording studio and band rehearsal room. These spaces offer access to a wide variety of technical performance media and support the transferability of skills and knowledge. The building has been open for business since May 2012.
University of East London (UEL) is a public university located in the London Borough of Newham, London, England, based at three campuses in Stratford and Docklands, following the opening of University Square Stratford in September 2013. The University of East London began as the West Ham Technical Institute and it was officially opened in October 1898 after approval was given for the construction of the site by the West Ham Technical Instruction Act Committee in 1892 following the Technical Instruction Act of 1889. It gained university status in 1992. It was formerly known as College of East London.
Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England.
Colchester Institute is a large provider of further and higher education based in the city of Colchester. Colchester Institute provides full-time and part-time courses for a wide variety of learners including 16 to 19 year olds, apprentices, adults, businesses and employers. Undergraduate and Postgraduate Higher Education courses are delivered through University Centre Colchester and validated by the University of East Anglia, University of Huddersfield and University of Essex.
Burton & South Derbyshire College (BSDC) is a general further education college and is situated in Burton upon Trent town centre. It attracts approximately 13,000 students from Burton and the surrounding towns and villages. It delivers a wide range of courses for all ages including 16- to 19-year-olds, adults into part-time study, employer training and higher education. Recently a 'university centre' has been developed within the college to enable students to study on franchised higher education courses, but is not in itself a university.
Leicester College is a further education college in Leicester, England. It is one of the largest colleges in the UK, with more than 26,000 students, 1,600 staff, plus an annual budget of over £50million. It has three main campuses in the city centre, and more than 200 community venues across Leicester.
The National Centre for Circus Arts is a professional circus school in the Hoxton area in London that offers one of the UK's only university degree programmes in circus. It is a leading centre for contemporary circus training. It supports the professional development of circus performers and circus companies and runs youth and adult evening classes every week. It also runs the London Youth Circus.
Weston College of Further and Higher Education is a general college of further and higher education in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England. It provides education and vocational training from age 14 to adult. The college provided education to approximately 30,000 enrolled learners. It is regarded as one of the top FE colleges in the UK, often winning high profile national awards. The college is part of the 9th largest college group in the UK.
Gateshead College is a further education college in the town of Gateshead, England. It offers further education for 16-18 year olds as well as higher education, apprenticeships, part-time adult learning and training for employers. Established on November 15, 1955 at Durham Road in Low Fell, Gateshead, it was closed in January 2008 for its displacement to the new main site located at the Baltic Quayside in Gateshead.
Sir Robin John Christian Millar is an English record producer, musician and businessman, known variously as 'The Original Smooth Operator', 'The man behind Sade', and 'Golden Ears' by Boy George. He was born in London to an Irish father and West Indian mother, and is blind. He is one of the world's most successful record producers with over 150 gold, silver and platinum discs and 55 million record sales to his credit. His 1984 production of Diamond Life, the debut album by Sade, was named one of the best ten albums of the last 30 years at the 2011 Brit Awards.
Aberystwyth Arts Centre is an arts centre in Wales, located on Aberystwyth University's Penglais campus. One of the largest in Wales, it comprises a theatre, concert hall, studio and cinema, as well as four gallery spaces and cafés, bars, and shops.
City of Westminster College is a further education college in the City of Westminster, Greater London, England, founded originally as Paddington Technical Institute in 1904 and gaining its current name in 1990. The college has two centres in central London, located in Paddington and Maida Vale. It also includes the Cockpit Theatre, a fully operational studio theatre used for training and performances, and a range of outreach centres. Since 2017, it is legally merged with the College of North West London (CNWL) although remains publicly distinct; together the United Colleges Group has more than 9,000 enrolled students as of 2019, most in young or adult study programmes and some in apprenticeships.
The Arden School of Theatre, also known as The Arden, is a drama school which is part of the Performing Arts faculty at UCEN Manchester in England, United Kingdom.
The Council for Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre (CDMT), formerly known as the Council for Dance Education and Training (CDET), is the quality assurance and membership body for the professional dance, drama and musical theatre industries in the United Kingdom. CDMT was founded in 1979.
High House is the collective name for a group of historic buildings in Purfleet, Thurrock, Essex, which was used as a farm for hundreds of years, with a Grade II listed house and barn, but with the addition of one of the best dovecotes in Southern England, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and notable for its nest box array. This property includes the house, coachman's cottage, chaise house, stable, granary, barn, workshop, cart sheds, dovecote, and inner and outer walled gardens. Known by many names in its past, the farm has been called Le Vineyards, because grape vines were grown on one of its south facing slopes. Its current name comes from the fact that it is a house high on the hill, which commands great views over the River Thames.
A studio school is a type of specialist secondary school in England that is designed to give students practical skills in workplace environments as well as traditional academic and vocational courses of study. Like traditional schools, studio schools teach the National Curriculum and offer academic and vocational qualifications. However, studio schools also have links to employers and offer education related to work.
Access Creative College, formerly Access to Music Ltd, is a UK-based independent training provider which specialises in industry-focused popular music and creative education. It operates across England with dedicated music colleges in Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Lincoln, London, Manchester, Norwich, and Plymouth. ACC's head office is in Manchester.
Banbury and Bicester college is a further education college in Oxfordshire, England. It has two campuses – one in Banbury and one in Bicester.
Factory International runs Manchester International Festival and operates Aviva Studios, a cultural space in Manchester, England.
Andrea Stark, FRSA, is a British arts executive. She was chief executive of High House Purfleet, director of the Foundation for Future London, the organisation responsible for developing the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as a new cultural and educational district and is currently Director of Employment, Skills and Culture at the London Borough of Islington. She was previously executive director of Arts Council England, chief executive of East England Arts, and chief officer of arts and culture at Dundee City Council. The financial arrangements for her departure from Arts Council England for High House Production Park caused some adverse comment in the arts press. Her appointment was announced by High House chairman Tony Hall, now director general of the BBC.
National College Creative Industries, formally the National College for the Creative and Cultural Industries, is a college providing technical skills for the creative industries, based in Thurrock, Essex, England. It was established in 2016. It is supported by a group of employers including the BBC, the National Theatre, Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU) and the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT).