Lighthouse Young Creatives #3 Launch
Help us empower young people to improve their employability and kickstart creative careers.
Emily Kyriakides, responsible for Business Development & Partnerships at Lighthouse, explains why Lighthouse Young Creatives is needed more than ever.
Emily says:
"Ahead of its launch in 2023, we are looking for Sussex-based creative and digital businesses to support a third cycle of our acclaimed Lighthouse Young Creatives scheme.
Providing professional development for 16-25 year olds in Brighton & Hove, Lighthouse Young Creatives is specifically aimed at young people who aspire to work in the creative industries but face exclusion through lack of access and barriers to participation based on social inequalities.
The conversation regarding equal opportunities and the need for many sectors to be more reflective of the diversity of our society has never been louder or more urgent. The statistics are stark, and collectively we have a lot of work to do to correct the historic imbalance:
Just 4.2% of the workforce in film, TV and radio, and 4.8% in the music, performing and visual arts are from the Global Majority.
People from working class backgrounds account for just 12.4% of those working in film, TV and radio, and 18.2% in the music, performing and visual arts.
When it comes to gender, women represent just 28.4% of the workforce in film, TV, radio and photography.
Add to that the current employment and workforce crisis in the UK, plus the cost of living crisis, and the future looks pretty bleak for many young people, who have also been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 when it comes to jobs. According to a report released by The Prince’s Trust and Learning and Work Institute, young people’s employment has been worst affected by the pandemic, with under 25s accounting for three in five jobs lost.
This is where schemes like Lighthouse Young Creatives can step in to help empower young people to improve their future and employment prospects. We do this through weekly sessions over six months that include production skills training, business, branding and marketing development, showcasing and networking. The young people also apply their skills and learning to produce a new project with mentoring support from Artist-Mentors.
Through the first two cycles of Lighthouse Young Creatives we have supported 25 young people to gain the skills, confidence and connections they need to kickstart a career in the creative and digital sectors. Since being on the scheme, 44% of them have gained employment in the creative sectors across a range of roles and disciplines including as photographers, radio DJs, TV/film production crew, magazine writers and more.
Brighton & Hove is celebrated for its creativity and for the role that digital plays in its economy. In 2019, Brighton & Hove’s digital economy was estimated to bring £1billion to the city each year. Lighthouse Young Creatives is designed to be part of the solution to supporting a healthy future for the creative and digital industries by finding and empowering talent from across the city – not just the privileged parts.
But we need help to do it from local businesses that can provide support in the form of expertise and sponsorship to help us raise the full budget and top up the monies received from our funders."
