Creative Contexts: work placement subjectivities for the creative industries

This article examines reflections on work placement experiences generated for the Creative Contexts website by higher education students. The article outlines the aims of Creative Contexts to generate and share placement experiences and stories. The article analyses the reflections films available on the website, and reveals a continuum of agency in which students’ contributions generally foreground the individual at the expense of the structural. The analysis reveals that whilst Creative Contexts can help foreground the subjective dimensions of employability, the students’ focus on individual dispositions and attributes does little to question industry and placement norms and structural challenges.     

Creative graduate pathways within and beyond the creative industries

This special issue explores the nuances of graduate creative work, the kinds of value that creative graduates add through work of various types, graduate employability issues for creative graduates, emerging and developing creative career identities and the implications for educators who are tasked with developing a capable creative workforce. Extant literature tends to characterise creative careers as either ‘precarious’ and insecure, or as the engine room of the creative economy. However, in actuality, the creative workforce is far more heterogeneous than either of these positions suggest, and creative careers are far more complex and diverse than previously thought. The task of creative educators is also much more challenging than previously supposed. In this introductory article, we commence by providing a brief overview of the creative labour debates, and the evidence for each position. We present the latest literature in this area that starts to speak to how diverse and complex the landscape of creative work actually is. We then introduce each of the articles in this special issue and indicate how they contribute to a more multi-faceted picture of creative activity, and the lives and career trajectories of graduates from creative degrees.     

The careers of fine artists and the embedded creative

While there is a growing body of scholarship on the creative industries and on the career trajectories of graduates from creative industries programmes, there has to date only been a limited amount of research that examines in detail, the careers of fine arts graduates. Fine art is arguably the least ‘vocational’ of creative disciplines, in that there are relatively few employers that seek to employ fine artists as fine artists. If fine arts graduates are not employed in their chosen field – that is, in the ‘Creative Trident’ terminology, in a core creative occupation – how do their careers parallel or differ from those of other creative graduates? Do they find employment as ‘embedded creatives’, using or applying their experience and practice in sectors beyond the core creative industries, or as ‘support workers’, enabling and facilitating the creative work of others? Do they experience portfolio careers? And how do their artistic training and attitudes to creativity affect their working relationships and experiences? This article draws on rich qualitative data about the experiences of a small group of graduates (including the author) who all graduated from the same course at the same institution in the UK in 1994, to provide some insights into the career paths and trajectories of a sample of fine arts graduates.     

Digital technology and creative arts career patterns in the UK creative economy

In this article, we ask what role both digital and artistic human capital play in the creative economy by examining employment patterns of digital technology (DT) and creative arts and design (CAD) graduates. Using student micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) in the United Kingdom, we investigate the characteristics and location determinants of these graduates. The article deals specifically with understanding how digital and creative skills in the UK are embedded across industries, or are concentrated in creative sub-sectors. Furthermore, it explores the role that these graduates play in each of the different sectors and their financial rewards. Findings suggest that digital technology graduates tend to concentrate in the software and gaming sub-sector of the creative industries, but also are likely to be in embedded creative jobs outside of the creative industries. DT and CAD graduates are more likely to be in a creative job than other graduates. Although they are more likely to be in full-time employment than part-time or self-employment, DT graduates suffer from a higher level of unemployment than CAD graduates.     

Embedded creative workers and creative work in education

This article is concerned with the many connections between creative work and workers, and education work and industries. Employment in the education sector has long been recognised as a significant element in creative workers’ portfolio careers. Much has been written, for example, about the positive contribution of ‘artists in schools’ initiatives. Australian census analyses reveal that education is the most common industry sector into which creative workers are ‘embedded’, outside of the core creative industries. However, beyond case studies and some survey research into arts instruction and instructors, we know remarkably little about in which education roles and sectors creative workers are embedded, and the types of value that they add in those roles and sectors. This article reviews the extant literature on creative work and workers in education, and presents the findings of a survey of 916 graduates from creative undergraduate degrees in Australia. The findings suggest that education work is very common among creative graduates indeed, while there are a range of motivating factors for education work among creative graduates, on average they are satisfied with their careers, and that creative graduates add significant creative-cultural and creative-generic value add through their work.     

创造教育:高校学生工作的灵魂

创造教育理念及其原则，在高校学生工作中具体体现和贯彻于思想教育、日常管理和社团活动等三个方面；要引导学生确立科学、全面的创造观，正确处理创造能力的培养与基础知识的学习和行为规范的养成之间的关系，把对学生的创造教育与全面发展的教育有机地结合起来。     

创业教育:高等职业教育的新视点

根据世界经济发展的形势，高等教育尤其是高等职业教育持续发展的现时要求和青年学生未来发展的实际需要，决定了创业教育将成为高等职业教育发展的新趋势。通过深化教育教学改革、更新就业观念、创新管理体制、强化创业实践，培养具有职业意识和创业意识的社会参与者，是高等职业教育的培养目标。     

Becoming employable students and ‘ideal’ creative workers: exclusion and inequality in higher education work placements

In this paper we explore how the ‘employable’ student and ‘ideal’ future creative worker is prefigured, constructed and experienced through higher education work placements in the creative sector, based on a recent small-scale qualitative study. Drawing on interview data with students, staff and employers, we identify the discourses and practices through which students are produced and produce themselves as neoliberal subjects. We are particularly concerned with which students are excluded in this process. We show how normative evaluations of what makes a ‘successful’ and ‘employable’ student and ‘ideal’ creative worker are implicitly classed, raced and gendered. We argue that work placements operate as a key domain in which inequalities within both higher education and the graduate labour market are (re)produced and sustained. The paper offers some thoughts about how these inequalities might be addressed.     

The rise of the embedded designer in the creative industries

Work practices in the creative industries have changed significantly since the turn of the twenty-first century. The design profession in particular has been influenced by rapidly emerging digital media practices and processes. While the design sector remains a significant source of employment, in recent years, there has been considerable growth in the number of designers working – or ‘embedded’ – in other sectors of the economy. The extent to which tertiary curricula cater for this shift in work practices and employment types is not well known. In this article, we report on original research on the preferred work destinations of a cohort of design students. This research was supplemented by a set of interviews with a small group of embedded designers in order to gain insights into the characteristics of embedded positions. Our research reveals that an embedded design position, while not well understood by undergraduate students, is a significant career path and one that should receive greater attention in undergraduate design curricula. We conclude that greater emphasis should be placed on assisting embedded designers to maintain creative networks that support them in what is a relatively isolated creative role.     

加入WTO与创新人才的培养

中国加入WTO后,高等教育应抓住机遇,积极迎接挑战,树立创新教育观,改革传统教育模式,优化教育环境,为中华民族屹立于世界民族之林,而培养大批合格的高素质创新人才。     

浅谈大学的创新教育与学生的创新能力培养

从大学和大学生两个视角对创新能力培养进行了探讨,总结了当前大学教育中创新能力培养模式不成体系,专业划分过细以及自主性欠缺等问题,指出了粗化专业设置、优化资源配置、完善制度规范、健全评价体系等改进方法与建议,描绘了真正的创新体系应该具有的特点,并展望了在不远的将来我国必将进入"创新强国"行列.     

Indicators of esteem: gender and prestige in academic work

The continued gender imbalance in senior positions in higher education is a problem that persists despite decades of feminist research and publications in the area, as well as interventions in many countries to promote the advancement of women. In this article we view the issue of gender inequality through the lens of the prestige economy, which suggests that academics are motivated by prestige factors accrued through advancement in their careers. Prestige, authority and status, we suggest, may be more easily acquired by male academics. We draw on a case study of one institution in the Republic of Ireland, including data from a survey on academic careers (n = 269), to explore how the concept of prestige is gendered. We explore the cumulative effect of four themes: homosociability; non-transparency of criteria; academic workload balance; and self-promotion.     

把实验室的创新成果转化为社会财富——创新人才培养的重要阶段

根据工作亲身经历和实地考察研究，认为高等学校实验室蕴藏着大量的创新成果。创新成果转化为社会财富的过程，是培养创新人才的重要过程或称重要阶段。文中分析国内、外的一些成功事例，说明实验室创新成果转化为社会财富的重要性和转化成功的必要条件。     

Action learning and the creative industries: the efficacy of an action learning set in building collaboration between a university and creative industries

In the UK, the creative sector has been identified as a key strand in the economic recovery strategy. Composed of mostly micro and small enterprises often grouping together for particular commissions and projects, there is a tendency to operate primarily through a series of networks made up of peers. This paper presents the outcomes of a ‘peer-to-peer business programme’, or action learning set, involving 10 participants from the creative sector over a period of 6 months. The programme was based on a ‘Six-Squared’ model where participants would address their own needs alongside participating in, and developing further understanding of, action learning sets in order to establish sets with others. Assessment of outcomes indicated that the programme allowed participants to develop new skills with peers, network and strengthen relationships and collaborate in a university programme. The paper concludes by suggesting that, within the context of a growing and vibrant creative industries sector and increasing pressures on universities to engage with the business community, it is essential to develop flexible, peer-led and innovative models of collaboration.     

论培养创新人才与高等教育改革

新时期高等院校面临满足未来社会发展人才需求与传统人才培养模式形成制约瓶颈的矛盾,如何适应高素质创新人才培养需求,如何对传统的高等院校进行深层次意义上的改革,必须更新高等院校人才观,突破教与学的范围、模式和内容局限,适应未来社会发展.     

高校创新教育面对的问题及改革对策

文章分析了当前高等学校创新教育中存在的主要问题，如缺乏创新意识，教师自身创新素质匮乏以及应试式评价体制，提出相应对策，参与对高校教育改革的讨论。     

创新人才培养与高等教育创新

要培养创新人才,教育必须进行创新,而教育创新必须适应培养创新人才的需要,这是高等院校教育创新的重要课题,也是新世纪中华民族实施伟大复兴战略对教育工作提出的新要求.     

文化创意产业研究的发展趋势及焦点演进分析——兼对宁波儿童文化创意产业的分析

文化创意产业的准确定位、政策引导、跨越发展,不仅需要实践的探索,更需要深入理论研究的前瞻性指导。为了直观地展现文化创意产业研究的深度与广度,以中国知网(CNKI)2000-2014年的文献记录为数据源,利用动态网络分析的信息可视化软件citespace,绘制出了文化创意产业研究的知识图谱。研究发现:2004年前后,文化创意产业与创意经济逐步突破了传统文化创意产业的研究框架,迅速进入了一个文献爆炸的阶段。研究的内容逐步从文化创意产业的特征分析转向与人才培养、非物质文化遗产等领域的结合。同时,结合这一知识谱系分析,对宁波儿童文化创意产业的发展趋势进行了理论分析和对策建议。     

我国普通高校创新型人才培养中存在的问题和对策

创新型人才的培养与高等教育的创新教育是密不可分的。目前,我国许多高校在创新型人才培养方面进行了有益的探索。但仍然是处于起步阶段,创新型人才培养的模式尚未形成;学生考试评价体系不合理;教育资源紧缺制约了创新型人才的培养。提高创新型人才培养质量,必须更新教育观念;改革教育方法和教师管理体制;优化课程体系;注重第二课堂;推进考试改革。     

铸造创新精神 开启创新智慧—21世纪高校素质教育的真谛

21世纪是以知识经济为主导的世纪。知识经济的灵魂是创新,谁最富于创新精神和创新智慧,谁就能占领科学技术的制高点,随之也将拥有科技、经济等诸多方面的支配权。面对时代挑战,大学应以培育高素质创新人才为己任,而大学素质教育也应以铸造学子创新精神和创新智慧为真谛。回顾民族创造力滑坡的教训,应认真反思大学的理念,努力营造有利于高素质创新人才成长的优越环境。