Consolidated report on employability challenges faced by Culture and Creative Young Professionals
The partners of the project “Empowering Culture through Business” have published the consolidated report on employability challenges faced by Culture and Creative Young Professionals (CCYPs) living or working in rural or remote areas. The report includes findings from each of the partner countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Poland).
This report is the final consolidated output of the activities of Intellectual Output 1 (IO1) of the project. The IO1 activities included surveys, focus groups and desk research conducted in each of the partner countries.
The findings of the report clearly indicate that in fact CCYPs face numerous challenges in the four partner countries. One significant challenge is low employment rate especially during periods of economic crisis which forces them to practise their profession as a part time job as they have to get another job in order to afford a decent way of living.
It has been also identified that limited availability of jobs and lack of professionalism are important factors that are affecting young people. Job opportunities in the cultural sector are limited and if available, usually employers do not have the necessary skills to mentor and guide the young professionals.
The report shows as well that people and especially people in remote and rural areas, tend to believe that the creative professions are not “real” professions and thus artists, and especially CCYPs, are not recognised for their work. Due to this fact, even when employed as CCYPs, the young professionals are not paid enough.
One common issue among the countries is also the lack of support by the Local Authorities. The Local Authorities having the responsibility to support the cultural sector through seasonable events and other activities, very often lack the capacity of organising well such activities and oftentimes they fail to include young people.
Based on the activities of IO1, the report additionally includes findings on the skills that CCYPs lack and require to have in order to face the abovementioned challenges. Some of the skills that were identified are, management of social media and marketing practices, organisational and negotiation skills and general business administration skills in combination with the obtainment of knowledge for participation in EU funded projects.
The results of the report will now feed into Intellectual Output 2 of the project which will deliver courses directed to CCYPs in order for them to obtain the necessary skills to face the identified challenges.
The full report can be found in the “Library” section of the project’s website.
More information can be found on the website of the project: https://empoweringculture.business/.