Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 35
35
Accepted
DCMS lacks sufficient influence in driving creative industries skills agenda across Government.
Conclusion
Skills will be vital to the ability of the film and HETV sectors to contribute to the Government’s industrial strategy, but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not have enough of a stake in driving the skills agenda across Government. It is relying on the goodwill of the Department for Education to consider the creative industries when developing skills policy, and there is no guarantee that this will continue. We await the Government’s plans for the Growth and Skills Levy and industrial strategy and will revisit this issue if they do not address the skills needs across the creative industries. (Conclusion, Paragraph 121)
Government Response Summary
The government commits to refining the Growth and Skills offer with industry, introducing shorter and flexi-job apprenticeships from August 2025, and launching new short courses from April 2026 to address specific skills needs in the creative industries. It is also exploring the portability of apprenticeships.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Working with industry and Skills England, the government will refine and develop the Growth and Skills offer to deliver apprenticeships and skills training that recognises the particular needs of the creative industries. This will build on flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and the new flexibilities that will be available, such as shorter duration apprenticeships, introduced from August 2025. We expect some of the first shorter apprenticeships to be available to apprentices training as Screen and Audio Production Assistants. We will ensure that we continue to consider the needs of smaller employers when developing our Growth and Skills offer. We will go further by introducing short courses in England, funded through the Growth and Skills Levy, in areas such as digital, artificial intelligence and engineering. These will support Industrial Strategy sectors such as in creative industries and advanced manufacturing from April 2026. We will work with Skills England to determine the courses which will be prioritised in the first wave of rollout and subsequent waves, and how those sit alongside apprenticeships and other training routes. We will work with Skills England to introduce these short courses and consider how to prioritise investment across the programme. We note the Committee’s recommendation on ensuring portability of apprenticeships between employers. Portable apprenticeships help temporary/fixed-term employment roles, by allowing apprentices to break up the continuous minimum 12-month employment/training period across multiple productions, in keeping with the realities of work. We are in the process of exploring this with the sector.