DCMS creative careers research
Source: gov.uk (2025-10-31)

Research by Ipsos investigating barriers faced by young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds considering careers in the creative industries.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is running a behaviour change campaign to encourage greater uptake of creative careers amongst young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Ipsos were commissioned to conduct research to investigate the specific barriers faced by young people from these backgrounds in considering careers in the creative industries including perceived risks, awareness of available roles, and the influence of parents/guardians.

This is to help ensure the campaign can be tailored to resonate with target audiences and drive meaningful engagement with the the DCMS-funded Discover! Creative Careers Programme.

Key Findings

Levels of awareness and interest in the creative industries

Knowledge and understanding of the creative industries:
- There is low awareness of the variety of options on offer within the creative industries.
- Parents and young people are most likely to associate the creative industries with traditional arts like music and the arts, film and TV, and design.
Interest of the creative industries:
- The creative industries have strong positive associations for parents and young people.
- The creative industries have high levels of interest amongst young people, compared to other sectors.
- Young people are slightly more likely than their parents to say that they would like to work in the creative industries in the future.
Both young people and their parents are less likely to associate the creative industries with IT and computer services - but this was the sector that both are most interested in their child/ themselves working in in the future.

Motivators to entering the creative industries:
- Key motivators for working in the creative industries included being able to pursue a passion, having control over their working life and having an impact.
- Interest in the creative industries also increased after learning about the diversity of the jobs available in the sector, suggesting awareness of the diversity of the jobs available in the sector could be a key enabler.
Barriers to entering the creative industries

Although the creative industries appealed to parents and young people alike, the research identified several barriers for communications to address:
- Parents and young people both think a competitive job market is the main barrier to working in the creative industries.
- There is an assumption that you need to be exceptionally talented to succeed in the creative industries.
- This ties to associations with the sector and more traditional arts.
- A sizeable proportion of parents are concerned that jobs in the creative industries lack long-term security and associate the jobs with self-employed, freelance, or contracting work.
- Parents and young people are confused on how to enter the creative industries.
- Young people are unclear on what skills or qualifications they need to work in the creative industries, and a sizeable proportion of young people and parents think that going to university is important to be successful.
- A lesser barrier relates to how many jobs are in their local area.
- Often young people are too young to have considered this seriously or actively looked at jobs in their local area.
- However, some assume that they may need to travel further afield to a larger city like London or a nearby city to access job opportunities.
- Young people from Greater Manchester, Liverpool City region, North East, West Midlands, and West of England and West Yorkshire (campaign target regions) are more likely to think there is a lack of jobs in their local area.
The target audience and how to reach them

The decision-making journey:
- Young people are more engaged in conversations about careers from age 13. Young people aged 11-12 struggle with conversations about careers, therefore they are less likely to have discussed their future career with their parents or be sure on what they want to do.
- Young people think more consciously about their career when making decisions for GCSEs and post-16 options.
- This often comes as a by-product of schools introducing career fairs and career talks during this period.
- This in turn encourages young people to discuss their future career plans with their parents who play a key role in the decision-making process.
Regional differences

Findings on regional differences are dispersed throughout the report

DCMS identified six key regions that they are interested in exploring in further detail. These were: Greater Manchester, Liverpool city region, the North East, West Yorkshire, the West Midlands and the West of England. Each region will receive £25 million as part of the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy to support sector growth.
- There are few differences between young people in London and young people in the campaign’s key regions in their interest in working in the creative industries.
- Young people in London are more likely to say that they are interested in working in IT & computer services in the future, than those in key regions.
- The proportion of parents from key regions that say they would encourage their child to work in the creative industries is high at three in five.
- However, parents in London are even more likely to say they would encourage their child to work in the creative industries.
- Parents in London are more likely to say that jobs in the creative industries offer long-term security than parents in key regions.
- Parents and young people in London are also more likely to say that they know what skills and qualifications are needed to get a job in the creative industries than those in key regions.
- Young people from C2DE backgrounds in the target regions are often not interested in going to university and so there is an appetite for information about alternative routes.
- Region does not seem to make a difference in terms of whether parents have spoken with their child about what they would like to do in the future in general, nor whether a young person has a strong idea about their future career.