A one-stop-shop website to help young people discover the range of jobs available across all the creative industries, including fashion and textiles, is now live.

DiscoverCreative.Careers is designed to help students and their parents, guardians and teachers find out more about the careers in industries including fashion, advertising, architecture, film and television, museums and galleries, performing arts and publishing – and the routes to them.

The creative industries are growing three times faster than the UK economy as a whole and to meet the predicted growth, there is a need for more young people to choose a career in one of the UK’s most dynamic sectors. The new site will signpost users to the full range of jobs available to counter an historic dearth of good careers information for the creative sector.

The UK Fashion & Textile Association (UKFT) has outlined a range of key job roles in the industry – what the job entails, what you might earn and what opportunities for progression in the sector there are – including garment technologist, knitting machinist and pattern cutter through to leather craftsperson, with more to come.

“Recruiting the next generation of talent in the fashion and textile industry is essential,” said Adam Mansell, CEO of UKFT. “Recent research suggests that there will be 20,000 new jobs needed in the industry in the next few years. This is part of a wider programme that UKFT is undertaking to promote careers in the industry and demonstrate the wealth of opportunities available.”

The initiative is part of the Creative Careers Programme being delivered by ScreenSkills, Creative & Cultural Skills and the Creative Industries Federation supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports as part of the Government’s industrial strategy. The lead partners have worked with organisations covering the 12 subsectors of the creative industries to provide expert information on the range of jobs.

By filtering searches according to individual interests, the website produces a personalised selection of potential roles. It then directs young people to job descriptions and case studies on the websites of the expert partners in the initiative and to live opportunities for work experience or workplace visits where available.

Young people can save their unique results page, personalised to their own interests and talents, as their own learning resource.

A dedicated part of the site provides teachers, careers advisors and educators with up-to-date statistics on creative careers, lesson resources and an address book of useful organisations.

Employers are also encouraged to get involved by promoting opportunities for events or work experience and showcase the experiences of young people visiting creative businesses to inspire others.

DiscoverCreative.Careers will form a safe and accessible network between industry, education and young people across the UK. The soft launch this week will be followed by further development work in response to the user experience of students, parents, teachers and careers advisers in coming months.

Aimee Higgins, Director of Employers & Partnerships, The Careers & Enterprise Company, said: “DiscoverCreative.Careers is a fantastic resource for young people, parents and teachers to better understand the opportunities that the creative industries have to offer and forms part of a broader programme of activity with employers that will bring this information to life.  We are delighted to be supporting the industry to make these resources and activities available to schools, colleges and young people across England. We hope young people from all backgrounds are inspired to explore the exciting opportunities that the creative industries have to offer.”

Seetha Kumar, Chief Executive of ScreenSkills which has led development of the pan-industry website, said: “The screen industries, like the rest of the creative sector, are keen to find and develop the next generation of talent needed to keep the UK a global leader.

“Having a single point of entry for young people to explore the jobs available, many of which they may never have heard of, is a crucial first step in securing the skills pipeline. We have revamped all the job profiles on our ScreenSkills website over the last year and partners have done likewise to make sure there is up-to-date information available on all the career options.”

Dr Simon Dancey, Chief Executive of Creative & Cultural Skills, said: “The team at Creative & Cultural Skills deal with enquiries about job roles and entry routes into the creative industries on a daily basis so we know how useful this vital one-stop-shop is going to be. The launch marks a critical moment for industry who face significant skills gaps in the coming years – we must work together to inform and inspire a much wider and more diverse group of young people into our workforce to ensure our thriving sector remains world-leading.”

Alan Bishop, Chief Executive of the Creative Industries Federation, said: “Talented and creative young people can be found everywhere, but the information and opportunities that they need to embark on a career in the creative industries can be more limited. This is wrong, and it is critical that we work together as a sector to ensure that young people from all backgrounds are easily able to access the information they need.

“Alongside the Federation’s work advocating the importance of creative education, we have a duty to inspire the next generation of creative talent. To this end, I am very pleased that the Discover Creative Careers site will launch as part of the Creative Careers Programme, and look forward to the impact that this crucial information source will have on our creative talent pipeline and on the futures of the young people themselves.”

The industry-led programme which consists of a number of practical and sustainable activities including this brand-new online tool, aims to raise awareness of employment opportunities in the sector, reaching more than 160,000 students by 2020, with better careers information online and through careers advisers. It is hoped that around two million young people will be able to access better advice about pursuing a creative career.

Many young people – and their parents, teachers and careers advisers – are unaware of the ways in which they could use their skills in the creative industries. The Creative Careers Programme aims to show that such careers are financially sustainable and have a comparatively low risk of automation. There are currently more than 77,000 vacant positions. However, 90% of positions are currently filled by people from more advantaged socio-economic groups.

Partners who have created up-to-date content explaining career options for DiscoverCreative.Careers are the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA),Crafts Council, the UK Fashion & Textile Association (UKFT), the British Fashion Council, Design Business Association, Association of Photographers, Publishers Association, Museums Association, National Archives, UK Music, One Dance UK, Society of London Theatre/UK Theatre/The Stage, Contemporary Visual Arts Network, Academy of International Extended Reality and ScreenSkills.

The site was devised by the digital team at ScreenSkills.

Visit the website here.