It covers crafts, cultural heritage, jewellery, design, music, performing, literary and visual arts. It was created to bridge the gap between industry, education and the government as well as to give employers an effective influence over education and the skills developed in the U.K.
The National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural was set up in April 2009. The Academy is a network of over 500 employers from the creative industries and over 40 Further Education Colleges across the nine English regions and in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Its Founder Chair is Paul Latham, Chief Operating Officer for International Live Music at Live Nation. The Managing Director is Pauline Tambling CBE. The National Skills Academy runs events throughout the year including Careers events and an annual industry conference. In Autumn 2010 the Skills Academy ran 25 careers events across the nation delivering practical and informative day programmes focused on backstage, technical and administrative roles available in the industry. NSA Founder Colleges and Industry Members work together to present teenagers with the opportunity to get a taster of what happens behind the stage of the world’s biggest events as well as offering 'live briefs' whereby students tackle professionally set challenges as part of their course work. Creative Choices is Creative & Cultural Skills' website for young people with information and advice about creative careers. It includes features such as 'Ask an Expert', where users can ask people questions already working in the industry. Since 2013 Creative & Cultural Skills has run the Creative Employment Programme which incentivises creative sector employers to take on apprentices and paid interns. It is funded with a £15 million grant from Arts Lottery through Arts Council England.
The Backstage Centre
The Skills Academy has developed a technical theatre, events and music training centre called The Backstage Centre in Purfleet, Essex as part of High House Production Park at High House Purfleet. The building houses training that could not otherwise be delivered nationally due to space and time restrictions in existing technical theatre training and performance spaces, and exposes learners to top level, world class technical theatre and live music professionals, companies and bands in a unique training environment. The design incorporates a large main space of 875m² with a 17m ceiling and a number of other training spaces including a CAD studio, lighting and audio-visual training studios, generic training spaces, a recording studio and band rehearsal room. These spaces offer access to a wide variety of technical performance media and support transferability of skills and knowledge. The building has been open for business since May 2012.
