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Creative Industries

The Creative Industries include publishing, architecture, advertising, photography, motion picture production, projection and distribution, video production and distribution, radio and television activities and arts and literary creation and interpretation.

This page offers a wealth of information and resources to help you investigate working in this sector or to help you read up to impress in applications and interviews.

Contents include:

Overview

The South West is recognised nationally as a region with a vibrant Creative Industries sector. It employs some 53,300 people. The region is recognised as a hotbed of creative and digital media, with modern state of the art audio-visual production facilities. It also has a vibrant art, crafts, and music scene. The region has established media clusters which offer growth and innovation opportunities in Plymouth, Wessex, Gloucestershire and Bristol.

Support organisations include South West Screen for media and digital industries and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

In recognition that businesses in the creative industries need flexible working environments a wide range of high quality business incubation and business support services are available.

Types and locations of work

The Annual Business Inquiry data shows both the number of businesses in the sector and the number of employees.

In 2007, there were 10,652 Creative Industries businesses in the South West.

The majority of these businesses (10,581) had fewer than 100 employees.

Only 71 businesses had 100 or more employees.

The sector employed some 53,300 employees (2.5% of the South West workforce).

The main sub-sectors in terms of employee numbers were:

Architectural/ engineering activities (30,000 employees).
Advertising (4,600 employees).
Publishing of journals and periodicals (3,900 employees).
Artistic and literary creations (3,900 employees).
Radio and television activities (2,800 employees).

The main sub-sectors in terms of number of businesses were:

Architectural/engineering activities (5,822 businesses).
Artistic and literary creation (1,860 businesses).
Advertising (976 businesses).
Motion picture and video production (484 businesses).
Radio and television activities (391 businesses).

The top Local Authority Areas (LAs), in terms of numbers of Creative Industry businesses located within them, included:

Gloucestershire: 1,426 businesses. 99.5% of businesses (1,419 businesses) had less than 100 employees. The main industries in this LA also included architectural/engineering activities (828 businesses), artistic and literary creation (239 businesses) and advertising (138 businesses).
Wiltshire: 1,089 businesses. 100% of businesses had less than 100 employees. The main industries in this LA included architectural/engineering activities (571 businesses), artistic and literary creation etc (238 businesses) and advertising (86 businesses).
Somerset: 1,081 businesses. 99.7% of businesses had less than 100 employees. The main industries in this LA included architectural/engineering activities (599 businesses), artistic and literary creation etc (210 businesses) and advertising (83 businesses).
Devon: 99% of businesses (1,387 businesses) had less than 100 employees. The main industries in this LA were architectural/engineering activities (770 businesses), artistic and literary creation (249 businesses) and advertising (123 businesses).

Major employers

The sector is characterised by small companies, many of which are listed in the Gradsouthwet Directory of Employers.

(Simply click on the 'Creative Industries' box under Industry Sector and hit 'search'. This will bring up a list and profiles of many of the creative industry employers in the region).

Job roles in this sector

Click here to explore job roles within the creative industries.

Search for jobs now!

Skillset (the sector skills council for the creative media) offers a wealth of specialist careers advice. Creative and Cultural Skills publish a number of national strategies which may also be useful if you are seeking a career in this sector.

Skills deficits

Evidence drawn from a number of sector skills councils suggests that some industries within the Creative Industries sector have reported either skills shortages and/or gaps.

Skills gaps or shortages provide opportunities for graduates to fill! Talk to your tutor or careers service about how you can develop skills that are in short supply to give yourself the edge in the job market.

Skillset, the sector skills council for creative media, highlighted skills gaps and/or shortages with regard to a number of creative industries. These are detailed below:

Photo Imaging Industry

The skills gaps experienced by the UK photo imaging industry include:

Use of digital technology
Knowledge of digital work flow
Management of digital assets

Radio

The main skills shortages experienced by the UK radio industry involve appointing adequately skilled people to radio engineer posts. Main skill gaps highlighted by Skillset include:

Management and leadership skills
Creative and technical content production

Television

Skillset highlight that employers find it difficult to employ adequately skilled people in broadcast technology, whilst skills gpas include management and leadership skills.

Publishing

The Skillset Skills Needs Analysis for the Publishing Industry 2008 reported that 5% of publishing establishments reported skills shortage vacancies. The three most common type of skills gap experienced by publishing businesses include:

Team working skills
Oral communication skills
Customer handling skills

In addition Creative and Cultural Skills (the Sector Skills Councils for the Creative and Cultural sector) within their Cultural Skills Sector Qualifications Strategy 2008 , have highlighted a plethora of “skills needs” related to sub industries within the creative and culture sector. The sub industries and skills need are summarised below:

Advertising: IT and digital skills; sales skills; management skills; and creativity skills.

Craft: Customer Service; networking; presenting; business administration skills; business management skills; costing and pricing skills; creative making skills; negotiation skills; and advocacy skills

Cultural Heritage: Leadership; management; specialist skills; visitor/customer services; education and interpretation; and fundraising skills

Design: IT and digital; business management skills; creativity; freelance skills; technical drawing skills; and project Management

Music: Management (particularly around contract and management and intellectual property); IT and digital and marketing and sales

Visual and performing arts and literature: IT and digital; business management; networking; costing and pricing skills; negotiation skills; and fundraising skills.