Diversity and fair access for the creative industries

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I’m very pleased to be here, and very proud to help launch the National College today.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that I was standing here, virtually on this spot, looking at little more than a collection of tumbledown barns and vandalised farm buildings.

Someone said there was a wonderful example of a Victorian walled garden, if you could find it behind all the brambles and rubbish.

If you’d have told people then that this would soon be the home of the Royal Opera House, The Backstage Centre, and now the National College; a national centre for skills and training capable of underpinning the UK’s world-class creative industries they’d have said it couldn’t be done.

It took a real leap of faith. And it’s a fantastic tribute to the commitment and determination of everyone at Creative and Cultural Skills, the Royal Opera House, and loads of others who have got behind it.

All of us are here because we believe in the vital importance of what you’re doing.

Yes, you need training to be an actor, a musician, or a dancer. But you also need training to be one of those people who brings the performing arts to life and makes them a success.

And you need the whole industry to invest in those skills.

That’s why I’m so proud that the National College is bringing together such an impressive consortium of supporters behind a new approach, that puts vocational education on a par with academic excellence, that gets employers working directly on the design of the courses, and allows students to train in a “hands-on” environment, alongside the professionals who work and rehearse, record and film here.

So when, back in October, Sir Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures dance company spent six weeks rehearsing in The Backstage Centre, students here could actually work with staff on the show. In fact, three are being placed on the national tour working with real industry people in real time, and truly learning on the job.

Today I want to talk a little about why this is so important right now, about what we at the BBC can do to help and how the whole of the industry must come together to support a project that is vital to all our futures.

A crisis of skills in the creative industries

All of us know how important the creative industries are to the UK - for the country at home and abroad.

So it’s no surprise that the Government has put it right at the heart of its industrial strategy helping to drive growth across the whole of the UK at a time when we need to reshape our economy, and reinvest in our strengths for the post-Brexit world.

That’s why yesterday’s announcement by the government - with measures to deliver digital skills training to millions - is so welcome.

But we have got big, big issues when it comes to skills more broadly.

Part of it is structural. There’s too big a gap between the education sector and the industry. And as an older generation retires, the struggle is to find a new generation with the skills to replace it.

We also know that many within the industry face real difficulties in making a long-term investment in emerging talent.

Around three-quarters of companies in the sector employ fewer than ten people – meaning they’re susceptible to the peaks and troughs that make longer-term planning impossible.

And with a high proportion of freelance workers across the sector, it’s tough for them to commit to training.

But as well as problems in the industry’s structures, we also know that there is a real problem of fair access and social mobility.
Now, I am passionate about giving everyone the chance to shine in the creative sector.

It’s why I founded Creative and Cultural Skills, why I was so proud to open up the Royal Opera House to new and different talent. Why I am so determined to do the same at the BBC.

But the truth is, broadcasting in particular remains a relationship-based, ‘who you know’ industry.

Too often, employers offer placements and internships through networks or contacts. Of course, this marginalises those who don’t have connections, especially those outside the big cities, and it favours the well-connected and well-off from the South East of England.

There are always plenty of highly-qualified young people happy to work for free. And the industry is always happy to take them.
But that leaves even fewer opportunities for those with fewer means - and especially for those who can’t afford to get to London - which means even less diversity in a sector that is often far from representative of the world around it.

A sector that, instead of being a force for social mobility, is too often a source of social exclusion.

Social inclusion and the BBC

At the BBC, this is a problem we take very seriously.

First, because it’s part of our mission to represent, and be representative of, the whole of the country. It’s part of our public purpose to find and train the best talent on behalf of the sector - whoever and wherever they are. We’ve made that one of the fundamental tenets of BBC Three - the first service, I think, anywhere to stop being linear and focus on new ideas and new, young talent online.

And second, because we’re really serious about being the most creative organisation in the world.

We know we can’t achieve this unless we draw on the full creative potential of the whole of the country - and allow no barriers to get in the way.

When I returned to the BBC as Director-General, I was determined that we should massively broaden our view of how to find talent.

That’s why I set the target of making apprentices one per cent of our workforce by 2016, and offering at least as many opportunities to non-graduates as to graduates. To provide more opportunities for all sorts of talent from all sorts of backgrounds to train and work in our industry.

In 2012, we had 37 apprentices. By 2014 we’d hit our target - two years early - with 177.

This year we have more than 230. And we’re aiming to have more than 400 by 2018.

And one of the schemes I am most proud of for helping us get there is in local radio. The idea is to offer young people the opportunity to work for the BBC all around the nations and regions – wherever they live.

I met the first 46 local radio apprentices in their first week of training, and I met them again when they graduated a year later…
What an incredible transformation - for them and for our local newsrooms.

And what really struck me - what I found really moving, in fact - was their enthusiasm and their appreciation for offering them a way into an industry that they didn’t think was possible.

One of them was a young woman called Aileen, an apprentice with Gaelic-language Radio nan Gaidheal. She kept telling me I had to come to Stornoway, and so I made it up there last year and saw her again.

She told me that she has now beaten off competition to get herself a full-time job in broadcasting - in her home town. And when I spoke to her boss and asked how she had done it, the answer was simple: “talent”.

It’s a great story of how we can help dig out and develop talent wherever it is.

Last year I was down in Exeter for Radio 1’s Big Weekend. And one of the things we run there - and have done each year since it was in Hackney in 2012 - is the Radio 1 Academy.

It’s a whole programme of events and workshops designed to give young people in the region the information, tools, and inspiration they need to succeed in a creative career.

It’s a brilliant way of reaching and supporting new talent.

Over 8,000 people attended our sessions and events in Devon - and we’ll be hoping for even more this year when we’ll be in Hull as part of its City of Culture celebrations.

More recently I was in Salford, meeting some of our Young Ambassadors at BBC North. These are young people from the local area with no qualifications and little or no experience in a working environment - but plenty of ideas and potential. The BBC is part of their region - but we want it to be part of their local community.

They told me they never thought the BBC was for them, but now it feels like home.

In fact, one of them felt so at home he joined me for the rest of the day, taking selfies wherever we went. And I think he’s a star.

We want to inspire, support, and champion young people, wherever they are. And we want to create fair access for graduates and non-graduates alike, so that both routes can pave the way equally to success in our industry.

Diversity and the BBC

But there’s another, essential element to this. And that’s diversity.

Because getting the very best at the BBC means making sure we draw on all of the talent the country has to offer.

Ours is already one of the most diverse workforces in the UK - as far as we know, we’re more diverse than any other major broadcaster, more diverse than the civil service, more diverse than any FTSE100 company that reports its figures.

But the targets we have set ourselves to reach by 2020 are among the most ambitious and stretching of any organisation. For the BBC, it’s right that that’s the case.

That’s why we recently carried out our most comprehensive, most complete survey of our staff - to get the best, most up-to-date picture.

It showed that 14.5 per cent of our workforce are from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, including more than 10 per cent of our leaders.

That’s ahead of our goals for 2017, and more than on track for 2020.

In fact, the survey showed that we have already far exceeded our 2020 targets for the proportion of our workforce with a disability - 10.3 per cent compared to an 8 per cent goal.

And, when it comes to the number of women we employ, we’re well within touching distance - less than 2 per cent short of our 50-50 target.

We know there’s plenty more to do - and no room for complacency. So we’re looking at how we can go further.

For me, one of the real priorities is to get more women, and more people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, into our most senior leadership positions.

We’re working with Clore Leadership Programme. Many of you will know them - they’ve done a fantastic job in the arts. The new Director of Tate, Maria Balshaw, for example, was one of the first Clore fellows.

So our Clore programme has a key role to play in preparing people to be able to compete for senior management jobs.

Our first intake offered six outstanding leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds a training placement with me and my direct reports - and it was a real success.

One of them, Tim Pemberton, is now executive editor for BBC Africa, shaping and managing what we do.

This year we have expanded the programme to include candidates with a disability, and we’ll be looking to expand it further still.
At the same time, we’ve developed a training scheme to help get BAME talent into commissioning roles. Commissioners are one of the most important groups of people in television - deciding what goes on screen.

This absolutely works.

Recently I met Fatima Salaria, one of those on the scheme. She was the brains behind our fabulous Black And British season. Now she’s a commissioning editor for factual programming, and, by the way, doing brilliantly.

And, let me say, this is not just about investing in top talent for the BBC - it’s for the whole industry. One of our first group of Assistant Commissioners, for instance, is now a comedy commissioner at Sky.

Role models in the big positions, making the big decisions - that’s the kind of change I want.

A collaborative, sector-wide approach

Of course, I am proud of the progress we have made - on apprenticeships and skills, on diversity and inclusion.

But I also know there is a long way to go - not just at the BBC, but industry-wide. Because the skills gap is a problem for the whole of the sector, and it is for the whole of the sector to respond.

As creative organisations, we are often brilliant at coming up with our own great initiatives. But the truth is: they are often too fragmented and short term - less than the sum of their parts.

To truly address the problem, there has to be sector-wide leadership, and a collective response.

That’s where the role of the National College is so vital.

It’s a unique opportunity for the whole of the industry to reach out to a much broader constituency of young people, to the benefit of employers and young people alike.

We all need it to succeed, and we all have a stake in making it work.

So I’m determined that the BBC will be your best friend, and lead by example.

How the BBC can support

We want to open up the BBC to you - in every way we can.

I’m aware that a National College needs a national orbit. And as the only employer in our sector who’s everywhere across the UK – I want to throw open our doors.

Can we help you develop regional centres around the UK and widen access to training?

Can we host students at our base in Birmingham, for example? Or in Salford at MediaCity?

We want to put our expertise at your service – and we want to benefit from yours:

• Designing the qualifications with you
• Giving our trainers the opportunity to work with you
• And allowing some of our apprentices to get their training here too

Conclusion

I want to finish with a recent reminder of the impact we can have.

Last week I was in Scotland, where I met a young woman from East Ayrshire: Hannah.

She’s been doing a photography course in college while working at her local pub and answered a callout for photographers from a BBC Scotland digital initiative: The Social.

It’s a platform that delivers daily content via social media, and so far it has helped develop more than 150 new and emerging creative people across Scotland.

When Hannah started talking about her comedy sketch ideas, based on her experiences behind the bar, The Social helped develop her first video, People In Pubs.

Straightaway, it went viral - with over 6 million views. And she has had several more comedy successes with The Social since.
She never thought she would end up working for the BBC, and she’s hugely excited at the opportunity - though she’s still picking up material behind the bar.

“I’ve learned more with The Social than in formal education,” is what she said. “I’ve discovered new skills, met new people and finally have some new ideas about career direction”.

It’s a reminder that talent is everywhere. And of why the success of the National College is so important.

Related Media Centre Links

• A more diverse BBC