I popped along to How-Do’s Manchester Creative Business Forum on Thursday the 7th of October - the Bank of England briefing and panel Q&A were excellent, but my main reason for attending was the Training & Development roundtable. It was great to see so many industry leaders in heated debate about talent, skills and the best way to find the right people for their company.
People are after all, the life blood of any creative business. Vision+Media have been working in this area of skills and talent development for over a decade and over the years we’ve developed and pioneered a number of mechanisms to help companies find the right sort of talent; whether its’ a non-graduate apprentice, an experienced TV director or a bedroom coder.
The attendance was a little too diverse to get agreement on some things, however here’s a round-trip through some of what we covered, and, of course, my two cents on it:
- Of course work experience cropped up in the conversation. Let’s be clear: work experience is there as much for individuals to decide whether a particular industry is for them. Creative businesses can be rather complacent in assuming that what they do is attractive to everyone. In reality it’s not – just like any other business. You might not really see what talent is out there, or get a real handle on what is currently being delivered in colleges and universities.
- We moved onto something in which we have past form: work-based training. Vision+Media have demonstrated how it gives more bang for your buck than work experience; to achieve this there needs to be some kind of structure in place, and individuals need to be paid. This suggestion touched on diversity issues, but there’s an inherent logic besides that: paying even minimum wage, and having some kind of development plan, will produce better results. Attracting and developing talent is a business endeavour just like any other: expecting someone to do it for free and without a plan might work, but less often, and less reliably. Not good for business. Think this would need extra support? Talk to us now about our creative & digital placements.
- The value of degrees was debated. They demonstrate potential and drive (in ideal circumstances) but creative businesses operate in such a niche that they must bring their specific expectations into the mix. You can join trade associations both local and national, but if I was to suggest anything that would be closer to a guarantee, just bang on the door of the universities in question yourselves. Those tutors or business team members who actually get back to you may be the real benchmark of what a “good” degree means for creative businesses right now.
- Apprenticeships were also discussed, which was pleasing: we’ve been delivering them to creative and digital businesses since 2007. I know they’re trendy right now but that’s besides the point: you’ll access a completely different talent base compared to the graduate pool. You can develop someone with exactly the skillsets you require, and there’s legions of talented younger people ready to demonstrate their potential out there.
Debate must always be moving forward (and well-documented) if action is to be strategic, well-designed, and when it happens, just work. We always have an open ear to businesses and we know what works now, and in the future. Disagree? Want to find out more? Add a comment or email me: [email protected]
