Future City Jobs Report

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Future City Jobs / Creative Jobs for Europe’s Young People: A Creative Industries Pilot Project

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Future City Jobs /Creative Jobs for Europe’s Young People:A Creative Industries Pilot Project

Transcript of Future City Jobs Report

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Future City Jobs /Creative Jobs for

Europe’s Young People:A Creative Industries

Pilot Project

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Contents

Executive Summary 3

1 From Crisis to Confidence 7 Supporting Our Young Creative Talent

2 Creative Jobs for 12 Europe’s Young People

3 Pilot Projects 21

4 Impact and 28 Learning Points

5 Summary & Main Policy 34 Recommendations

6 Case Studies 36

The “Future City Jobs” Action is supported by the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity – PROGRESS (2007–2013).This programme is implemented by the European Commission. It was established to financially support the implementation of the objectives of the European Union in the employment, social affairs and equal opportunitiesarea, and thereby contribute to the achievement of the Europe 2020 Strategygoals in these fields. The seven-year Programme targets all stakeholders whocan help shape the development of appropriate and effective employment andsocial legislation and policies, across the EU–27, EFTA–EEA and EU candidateand pre-candidate countries. For more information see:http://ec.europa.eu/progress. The sole responsibility for the implementation of the Future City Jobs Action lies with the British Council and its partners. The Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in documents and publications related to this Action.

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Executive Summary

“The cultural and creative sectorsoffer great potential to boost jobs andgrowth in Europe. EU funding alsohelps thousands of artists and culturalprofessionals to reach new audiences.Without this support, it would be diffi-cult or impossible for them to breakinto new markets.” Androulla Vassiliou,European Commissioner for Education,Culture, Multilingualism and Youth –introducing the Creative Europe Programme.

Future City Jobs is an Action-funded project by the European UnionPROGRESS programme. The projectstarted in September 2011 and com-pletes in September 2012. Led by theBritish Council, the Action is delivered by partners representing six cities fromsix EU Member States: Glasgow (UnitedKingdom), Prague (Czech Republic), San Sebastian (Spain), Södertälje (Sweden), Tallinn (Estonia) and Wroclaw (Poland). Together the cities have collaboratedthrough Future City Jobs to develop and implement activities that strengthenyouth employment opportunities in theCreative Industries. Main activities in-clude a set of practical and vision-build-ing workshops to prioritise options forsupporting young talent to access orcreate jobs in the Creative Industries;shared digital platforms and a series ofmeetings to exchange ideas, share bestpractice and co-create an agenda for effective change; and two pilot projectsin Wroclaw and San Sebastian – designed to demonstrate what is possible with commitment, energy andenterprise. These case studies were alsoan opportunity to reflect on what goodpractice might entail in the future. This short report provides an intro-duction to Future City Jobs – its objec-tives, activities and impacts. It is writtenby Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy

(TFCC) – a leading European consultancypractice for the creative economy andtrans-national experts to Future CityJobs (www.tfconsultancy.co.uk) TFCC’srole has been to provide a criticalthough constructive role throughout –and this report is written from the professional perspective of TFCC.

Why Future City Jobs?

Creating jobs for young people isone of the greatest challenges faced in Europe today. Future City Jobs responds to the challenge of risingyouth unemployment by demonstratinghow the potential of the Creative Indus-tries can be unlocked and addressinga direct request made by the partnercities to work together to deliver positive change through collaboration.

This is important because:• The Creative Industries has, over the last 15 years, grown faster thanother sectors, created many jobs andgenerated significant value to the widereconomy; yet it does not generateenough opportunities for our youngpeople. The EU Green Paper – ‘Unlocking the potential of the cul-tural and creative industries’ – recog-nises the contribution the sector canmake to the competitiveness, prosperityand cohesion of Europe, and the forth-coming Creative Europe programme introduces unprecedented investmentand strategic clarity to support thegrowth of the European Creative Economy. However, the Creative Indus-tries has continuously failed to make the most of the diverse and young talentavailable across Europe, with multiplebarriers to entry preventing manyyoung people from accessing sustain-able employment in the sector. FutureCity Jobs aims to demonstrate, througha blend of international collaboration

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and bottom-up local approaches, howthis issue can be addressed – not least by undertaking a micro and bespokeapproach to a sector that is made up ofmany micro and distinctive enterprises.

• Europe’s future is in its cities, but ourcities are not as effective as they couldbe in nurturing talent and supportingcreative businesses to flourish. Over70% of the population lives in urbanareas, and this figure is set to rise further. But employment opportunitiesfor young people in Europe’s cities are scarce – and particularly scarce in smaller ‘non-metropolitan’ cities.The youth unemployment rate in theEU-27 is more than double the total unemployment rate and the six citiesparticipating in Future City Jobs allhave uncomfortably high levels of youthunemployment. Future City Jobs aimsto demonstrate how cities, through effective international and cross-sectorpartnership, can provide the enablingconditions for young creative talent toplay a major role in economic restruc-turing, regeneration and sustainablegrowth. Vital here is developing moreeffective transition from the educationsector to the labour market, where it is important to establish a blend of technical, creative, management, entrepreneurial and life skills. In toomany places, the education sector isequipping young people with some,though not all, of these skills.

The financial crisis has servedmerely to heighten the challenges that we face if we are to maximise the potential of our talent to deliver com-petitiveness, prosperity and cohesionto Europe. As we emerge from the eco-nomic crisis, the jobs market for youngpeople will be more competitive thanever, with young talent competing withmore experienced talent from across

the workforce. In addition, the structureof the labour market will continue toshift – with small and micro enterprises,freelancing and portfolio work increas-ingly ‘the norm’ for a workforce where,in many parts of Europe, larger employ-ers have dominated and where there islittle social history of self-employment. If Europe is to be competitive, pros-perous and cohesive, then it needs to make the most of its number one re-source: talent. Moreover, if Europe is toinnovate and develop a new generationof high value products and serviceswhich re-balance the economy, gener-ate wealth, engender confidence andimprove our wellbeing, then we need to provide the enabling conditions todevelop the right mix of skills, attitudesand expectations amongst our youngpeople. Currently, it is not an exaggera-tion to suggest there is a crisis of confidence and opportunityamongst our young people, with anactive role in economic developmentstymied by a set of social, cultural,structural and financial barriers. In other words, we are failing our young people because the enablingconditions are not currently designedto make the most of their talent. Future City Jobs seeks to demonstrate what is possible throughinternationally-coordinated, collabora-tive city-making, which addressesa systemic pan-European issue througha targeted local approach. With longertime to nurture partnerships, developknowledge and share learning, FutureCity Jobs could have produced signifi-cantly more. But as the first such initia-tive in Europe with a focus on CreativeIndustries employment for young peo-ple, this report shows that it has raisedthe stakes and shown the way.

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The Impact of Future City Jobs

The main objective of Future CityJobs is to respond to the challenge ofyouth unemployment by demonstrablyunlocking the potential of the CreativeIndustries through a set of network andpilot activities. It was established witha clear agenda to develop new knowl-edge and share learning with the six participating cities and more widely with cities and regions across Europe. In our assessment, Future City Jobs has clearly delivered this objective. Overall, we show that Future City Jobs:• Heralds the beginning of a new era of multi-partner / multi-country approaches to job creation for youngpeople in the Creative Industries.• Demonstrates how in smaller cities,youth employment in the Creative Indus-tries will require longer-term approachesthat build capacity and entrepreneurship,broker employment opportunities foryoung talent and stimulate demand forcreative goods and services. Internationalpartnership with other cities is key here –sharing knowledge and building confi-dence that this is the right path to take.• Makes clear how small-scale local inter-ventions can, when pitched as part of aninternational programme, generate suffi-cient energy, know-how and confidence todevelop longer-term strategic investmentsin youth employment programmes for theCreative Industries. All of the six partnercities are currently scoping how to developsuch an approach in the future.

The main weaknesses of Future City Jobs lay in:• Its limited duration, which made partnership and pilot developmentmore challenging than desirable, lim-ited the time available to communicatethe project to other cities and regions,and now requires us to make assump-tions on longer-term impact without

the benefit of real hindsight to make such an assessment.• Its structure, where cities had differinglevels of capacity and expertise to contribute to the project, where digital participation was not as integrated asanticipated, and where opportunities todevelop deeper one-to-one partnerships(e.g. for mentoring) were limited.

Yet overall, Future City Jobs needsto be understood as a rapid demon-strator project that raises awarenessacross Europe of the potential of Creative Industries to generate jobs foryoung people. More than this, FutureCity Jobs demonstrates that stimulatinggrowth in the creative economy is notan adjunct to the wider health and sustainability of cities – it is somethingthat can directly help tackle the majorchallenges facing our urban centresand their regions. We conclude this short report by explaining how investing in culture and creativity does not, in most cases,require grand investments in infrastruc-ture but should entail a blend of bottom-up and partnership-driven approaches that combine smaller-scaleactivities knitted together to form a sys-temic approach to creative city-making.This is how to deliver smart and sustain-able growth, to be locally sensitivewhile globally open, and to ensure activities are people-centred ratherthan driven by detached civic ambition. Future City Jobs – and in particularits two pilot activities – introduces approaches to job creation for youngpeople which are bespoke to the localenvironment while inspired and drivenby expertise and support available inter-nationally. This, we argue, is an importantmessage for partners going forward as the Creative Europe agenda gathersmomentum and specific projects are rolled out. We hope such projects will build on the learning, energy and appetite generated by Future City Jobs.

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1. From Crisis to Confidence – Supporting OurYoung Creative Talent

“The recent economic crisis has no precedent in our generation. The steady gains in economic growthand job creation witnessed over the lastdecade have been wiped out – our GDPfell by 4% in 2009, our industrial pro-duction dropped back to the levels of the 1990s, and 23 million people –or 10% of our active population –are now unemployed” (Europe 2020 –A European strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth).

Creating jobs for young people isone of the greatest challenges faced in Europe today. Over one in five youngpeople across all 27 members states

is unemployed – over 5.5 million (Euro-stat, 2. 7. 2012) – with people under 25 almost twice as likely to be withoutwork than older people. While many ofthe causes of this can be linked directlyto the economic crisis, the creation of sufficient numbers of high-value jobsfor our young people is a challengeeven in good times. Providing pathwaysand reducing barriers to entering thelabour market, improving skills and lifting levels of entrepreneurialism (and ensuring the higher and furthereducation sector plays a more effectiverole here), and diversifying the types of jobs available (such as in the Creative Industries and wider KnowledgeEconomy; and in self-employed as wellas employed positions), are all criticalchallenges in rapidly evolving and modernising economies. Europe 2020, the EU’s growth strategy for the next decade, makes it clear that jobs will primarily be created through smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. It places particularemphasis on innovation:

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Future City Game in Södertälje.

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“With an ageing population andstrong competitive pressures from glob-alisation, Europe’s future economicgrowth and jobs will increasingly haveto come from innovation in products,services and business models”.http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/index_en.cfm

Central to delivering success herewill be unlocking Europe’s creative potential, and critical here is bettersupport for the Creative Industries –those businesses that add valuethrough the generation and exploita-tion of Intellectual Property, based on creative thinking and creative entre-preneurialism. Over the last 15 years,the Creative Industries has been one ofthe most dynamic and fastest growingsectors in Europe – accounting for 3.3% of total EU GDP and 3% of employment (http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/index_en.cfm). In all but 6 of the top 25 growth regions for the sector, between 2003/4 – 2008/9 the Creative Industries grewat a faster rate than the general growthrate of the regional labour market. In the same period in the top ten coun-tries for growth in the sector, CreativeIndustries grew at the same rate orhigher than employment in all sectorsof the economy (The European ClusterObservatory Priority Sector Report: Creative and Cultural Industries). As outlined in the Creative Europeprogramme, the sector is expected tolead growth in the post-crisis Europeaneconomy, leveraging its strengths in innovation, digitalisation and collabora-tion across the wider knowledge econ-omy. Put simply, the Creative Industriesare critical for Europe if we are to gain from our existing competitive advantage of a strong education andskills sector, open markets, low levelsof copyright infringement, and ease of doing business.

“We are entering a new global reality. The Creative Industries are respondent to digitisation, convergence,piracy, the fragmentation of the massmedia and changing business modelsthat challenge traditional forms of valuecreation.” John Newbigin, Chair – Creative England

Additionally, businesses in the Creative Industries play a formativerole in generating innovation and liftingproductivity across the wider economy– from providing goods and services to other sectors, to enhancing the performance of the traditional arts andcultural sector. The Creative Industriesis also leading changes to the structureand profile of businesses in Europe:with a rich mix of flexible micro-busi-nesses and individual entrepreneursworking across dynamic portfolios in a highly networked way, the sector represents the future world of work for so many citizens of Europe. However, the Creative Industrieshave the potential to deliver so muchmore. For example, much of theirgrowth over the last decade wasachieved without opening up to the full diversity of European talent: youngpeople, and in particular young peoplefrom non-majority ethnicities or lessprivileged social backgrounds, havefound it difficult to build successful careers in many parts of the CreativeIndustries. The sector, as a network-based economy, has flourished as muchthrough access to privileged socialcapital as through available talent. A further example of the under-performance of the Creative Industriesis its relative concentration in larger‘metropolitan’ cities and its limitedgrowth in medium- and smaller-cities.This means the sector has in some casesexacerbated problems of talent lossand market development in parts of Europe, with talent taking flight to moreestablished clusters of activity. This is

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a particular issue for young people, for whom hyper-mobility has becomea prerequisite gamble for access tocreative jobs. There is a growing body of evidencethat those regions and cities witha strong Creative Industries sector arealso those with the brightest economicprospects (The European Cluster Observatory Priority Sector Report: Creative and Cultural Industries). There-fore, if we are to nurture opportunitiesfor all our young creative talent, it isimportant to deliver the enabling conditions for sector development in different types and scales of city.

Cities and Creativity

As indicated above, the highest con-centration of jobs in the Creative Indus-tries and those places with the greatestpotential for sector growth are citiesand city-regions. There are many reasons for this, but the most widelyaccepted is that creative individualsand businesses thrive best within the‘agglomeration economies’ that citiesonly offer – the flow of talent, ideas,capital, multiple institutions and connec-tions that only the density of cities canoffer (Demos: A tale of Tech City 2012). However, relationship is not just oneway: just as Creative Industries flourishin cities, so cities with a thriving cre-ative sector flourish too. It is estimatedthat for every job created in the ‘inno-vation economy’ (which includes theCreative Industries), another five aregenerated elsewhere in other profes-sions and services (Demos: A tale ofTech City 2012). This is one part of themultiplier effect that the sector has forthe wider economy – boosting otherkey sectors including manufacturing,ICT, tourism and finance. The Creative Industries have another significant effect on cities and regions: as key drivers of identityand place-making. Through the

‘value-laden’ goods and services they produce, they are often uniquely associated with and derivative of place(think of china from Delft or the Manchester music scene). They aredrivers of regeneration – through occupying spaces that other more traditional businesses have left or pioneering the development of run-down areas. The rise of ‘set-jetting’(people visiting film locations) is just one example of how the creative industries are now vital in the market-ing and creation of destination or cultural tourism. Yet the Creative Industries is nota ‘panacea’, working equally effectivelyin all places. Nor is the sector simplya big city phenomenon. Report afterreport shows that for the Creative Industries to flourish and grow, a set of infrastructural conditions needs to be in place (TFCC: InfrastructureWorking Group Report for the UK’s Creative Economy Programme, 2008).These include a fit-for-purpose learningand skills offer, an excellent arts andcultural sector, appropriate workspace,high-speed broadband, access to markets and supply chains, availabilityof highly-skilled workers, effective business support, access to financeand a supportive legal framework (The Work Foundation: A Creative Block,2010). Put simply, cities that can deliver these infrastructural conditionsand do so by working closely with the(young) talent they are seeking to support, tend to build successful Creative Economies. Moreover, generating employmentand new jobs in this dynamic and complex sector is far from easy. Oneparticular challenge is that the CreativeIndustries are for the most part a ‘small’and in many cases ‘micro’ businesssectors’. Growth for these small busi-nesses, as for any small businesses, is rarely smooth. Such businesses are vulnerable to shifts in technology

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or taste, often have to fail to succeed,and require constant exposure to newideas and skills if they are to retain theagility required for innovation andgrowth. Creative businesses also facechallenges in balancing their creativeand management skills, negotiating intellectual property concerns, and establishing cash flow for the develop-ment of often intangible assets. Collectively, these challenges can be understood as challenges ofcreative entrepreneurialism. Successin fostering creative entrepreneurialismvaries hugely across Europe and evenwithin nations and regions. In the Cre-ative Industries, because of the uncer-tainty and fragility of small businesses,coupled with the specific skills requiredto deliver growth, the sector is falling short of its full potential. This is particularly the case for young peopleand most acutely for young people of disadvantaged backgrounds.

If we can address these chal-lenges of creative entrepreneurial-ism, we can also make progress inaddressing the crisis of confidenceand opportunity facing our youngpeople. In this report we explain how the learning generated by theFuture City Jobs project sets up anopportunity for partners across Europe to put young creative talentat the heart of their strategies forrecovery, sustainability and growth.

2. Future City Jobs: Creative Jobs for Europe’s YoungPeople

Future City Jobs explores the waysspecific cities can provide the enablingconditions for creative entrepreneurial-ism to flourish. It does this by piloting

a set of ‘live examples’ of sector supportand by staging a network of cities toshare ideas and co-create a creative en-trepreneurial agenda for Europe. It hasa specific focus on supporting youngtalent in medium- and smaller-cities. The Future City Jobs project was introduced to test different approachesto job creation and entrepreneurialismin the Creative Industries. It was inspired by the experience of theBritish Council and multiple municipali-ties which collaborated on the Council’s Creative Cities Programme.This Programme identified a set of barriers to growth and development inthe Creative Industries. These includespecific challenges for young people,such as access to entrepreneurial andmanagement skills, to knowledge andsocial capital, to markets and finance,and to a wider enabling environment in the cities and regions where they live. The main objective of Future CityJobs is respond to the challenge ofyouth unemployment by demonstrablyunlocking the potential of the CreativeIndustries through a set of network andpilot activities. It was established with a clear agenda to develop new knowl-edge and share learning with the sixparticipating partners and more widelywith cities and regions across Europe. The six partner cities are: Glasgow(UK), Prague (CZ), San Sebastian (ES),Södertälje/Stockholm (SE), Tallinn (EE),and Wroclaw (PL). Each city partici-pated in Future City Jobs to deepentheir commitment to the Creative In-dustries as vital to their future growthand prosperity. Each participant is alsoa past, present or future European Capital of Culture and has worked tomake the strategic connection betweena flourishing arts and cultural sectorand strong Creative Industries sector.

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Future City Jobs: How it Works

Future City Jobs is based on a simple four stage process, with anemphasis throughout on knowledge exchange and dialogue between thesix partner cities and a wider set of decisionmakers across Europe. It is ledand managed by The British Council’sCzech Republic office in Prague andsupported by international creativeeconomy experts, Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy (TFCC).

For each of the participating cities, the project is driven by NGOs or repre-sentatives of the municipality. A re-quirement of involvement in the projectwas a signed letter of participationfrom a senior officer in the municipality.This committed the cities to participa-tion for the duration of the project (July 2011 to September 2012).

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Figure 1 below presents the sequence of activities for Future Jobs project.

Inception meeting London /October 2011

Cities get together, plan project and visit inspiring projects

GlasgowScotland

PragueCzech

Republic

SanSebastianSpain

SodertaljeSweden

TallinEstonia

WroclawPoland

Each city holds a two day ‘Future City Game’ workshop for stakeholders, including young people and representatives from other cities to generate potential concepts for the pilot phase.

Pilot selection meeting Prague January 2012

Two Pilot projects are chosen from the city’s presentations

Future City Gam

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Future City Gam

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Future City Gam

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Future City Gam

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Future City Gam

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Future City Gam

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Pilot 1: WroclawPanato ProjectA cooperative for artists

Pilot 2: San SebastianLoaf in a Box

6 Cities visit each other, network and share ideas

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The four stage process for Future CityJobs involves:

I. Introduction and Exchange: Inception meeting in London, October 2011

This meeting was staged to intro-duce cities to the project, to eachother, and to a set of ‘good practicecase studies’ in London. TFCC brokeredopportunities for the participatingcities to visit and exchange ideas with the case studies, with the Londonmeeting designed as a curated programme of ideas generation for Future City Jobs. Case studies includedRavensbourne College, Arcola Theatreand Chelsea College of Art and Design.Each case study provided a differentexample of practical employment generation for young people in the Creative Industries. For example, ArcolaTheatre has considerable experience in running apprenticeship programmesfor unemployed young people, whileRavensbourne College hosts thelargest scheme for apprentices in the Digital Creative Sector in London.Chelsea College of Art & Design pro-vides an example of blending academicexcellence with socially engaged prac-tice for creative entrepreneurs and hasset up a knowledge exchange pro-gramme for the sector. Through deskresearch conducted throughout the du-ration of the Action, the British Councilhas also produced case studies ofother examples, ranging from Livity,a social enterprise which produces co-create campaigns, content andcommunities for young people to Raumaufzeit in Germany, which turnsdisused buildings into creative work-space. All 8 Case studies and informa-tion from this meeting were gatheredon the knowledge sharing websitehttp://creativecities.britishcouncil.org/future-city-jobs/ and are presented as a technical appendix to this report.

II. Visioning: Future City Games,November to December 2011

This is the central element of the Future City Jobs process. Each cityheld a two day Future City Game usingthe creative and interactive methodol-ogy pioneered by the British Councilduring the Creative Cities project. Approximately 30 participants dividedinto teams of 5 or 6 take part in eachGame. Drawn from a wide cross-sectionof the community (including youngpeople, government officials and creative entrepreneurs), they met for two days to co-create an agendafor change in their city. For Future City Jobs, representatives from the sixcities attended each of the six FutureCity Games – to share ideas and gainnew insights. The Game starts by asking partici-pants to consider the systemic chal-lenges their city faces, such as issuesto do with transport, the environment,social inequality, health and of courseunemployment and young people. Following this, the Game moves on torequire each team to propose solutionsto these challenges. Gradually, theseare developed until each team has one major idea it can work on. Outsideexperts are also invited to give theirperspective and offer additional ideas (in Glasgow, experts included a youngfashion designing team, Obscure Cou-ture, which is responsible for costumeson the ‘X-Factor’ TV programme). At the end of the two days, one projectis voted the winner by the participants.These projects were then presented as priority ideas in the Pilot Selectionmeeting – see below.

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III. Pilot Selection Meeting,Prague, January 2012

Following the completion of the Future City Games in each city, the sixparticipating cities, the British Counciland TFCC congregated in Prague to review the ideas generated in theGames and to choose the two majorpilot projects for Future City Jobs (i.e.the projects which are given additional resources to explore their potential).Due to funding constraints and a desireto inspire cities to develop their ownprojects in the future, the project design decided to provide a smallamount of start-up funding for only two pilot projects in two cities. Each city presented its ‘winningidea’ from its Future City Game to the other participating cities, BritishCouncil and TFCC. A process of criticalreview then commenced – with partici-pants offering suggestions on howideas could be strengthened, on goodpractice from elsewhere, and on howsuch ideas might operate in differentcities. Following the presentations and discussions, cities voted on theirfavourite ideas – i.e. for their preferredpilot project.

The selection criteria for the pilots were agreed by the partner cities before voting. They included the following:• Innovation – the degree to which the proposed pilot represented a newapproach within the partner city to de-veloping jobs in the Creative Industries• Strategic fit – the extent to which theproposed pilot would deliver againstthe specific strategic priorities of thepartner city• Local buy-in – the degree to which theproposed pilot has the buy-in of localbodies, including relevant institutionsand partners

• Scalability – potential to scale-up theproposed pilot - either within the part-ner city itself, the wider region/country,or with other partners. Each city was not permitted to ‘vote for itself’. The result of this votingprocess meant that the two projectsselected as Future City Jobs pilotswere: Panato in Wroclaw, and Techno Emotional Spaces (which later developed a sub-pilot project calledLoaf in a Box) in San Sebastian.

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Ideas

Out of the Box

Re-Cr8

In the Box

Urban Foragers

Creative Incubator –Neighbourhood Hub

We Won’t Play Without You

Creative Public Procurement

Techno-EmotionalSpaces (Loaf in a box)

On Egin! (Enjoy your Meal)

Centro Internacionalde Inquiteudes

(International Centreof Interests)

Connecting Bus

Connect Busters

Brief Description

GLASGOWA network of support and expertise to enable young people to succeed in the creative industries.A commercial social enterprise on the high-street which has an ethical ethos and operates as a lifestyle store.A mentoring network for further education students and the creative industries in order to secure real jobs.Changing derelict sites into productive sites by converting them into plots for market and kitchen gardening.

PRAGUEA low-rent workspace and creative environment for young people who are unemployed or just starting-up.A project supporting voluntary work in cultural organisations through supporting placements and a web-portal.

Promoting effective use of public money to finance creative and cultural industries. Linking entrepreneurs and artists with each other and theneeds of local communities and cities.

SAN SEBASTIANReconnecting people and communities around the river Urumea throughthe use of floating containers which would act as workshops, showcasesand other spaces for ideas and action by young people.A network that would work as a mediator between farmers and food producers producers and kids at schools creating a chain from garden to plate encouraging healthy eating and cooking knowledge.

Taking a disused space in the City and turning it into a cultural centre for visitors and residents with room for creation, mixing and sleeping.

A social trading platform connecting needs and offers of people fromacross the city combining the bus network and an online site – young people would gather and collect information as they ride the bus.

Young People riding sustainable vehicles tour the city, collecting ideas for municipal improvement from people which they visualise to improvecommunication between citizens.

Table 1 below gives a brief description of each of the ideas generated by the workshops

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Ideas

Job-Coach

UpbringingA Creative and Stress

Free Weekday

Food Fusion

Through the Eyes of Young People

Social Circus

Job-portal for Creative People

Alternative Tourism

Creative Work Cooperative (Panato)

Park it

Associated SpaceWorkshop

Flash Motion

Brief Description

SODERTALJECreate job opportunities and employability through an online platform.To unburden stressed parents and improve academic and personal development for young people through online resources.

Building bridges across cultural boundaries to prevent segregation through media and food.Alternative marketing bureau and tourism agency for Sodertalje driven by young people.

TALLINNUsing physical and mental circus exercises to improve the quality of life for those in risk groups (unemployed, ethnic minorities, lesser social backgrounds etc).A web-portal that connects unemployed young people with creative businesses and encourages collaboration.

Young unemployed and young people in threat of unemployment offer alternative tourism services to tourists and groups.

WROCLAWAn economic entity that combines graduates from artistic schools and local craftsman, to create a brand for a district and for the artistic products created in the area.Improving the attractiveness of Wrocław parks through better recreational facilities and gastronomic spots.

A platform combining the students of Fine Arts Academy with the members of Craftsmen Groups is to exchange knowledge and create of goods and services.

Using dancers-animators to create events in public spaces to integrate different social groups, educating choreographers and cultural animators,who could lead their own groups and sell their services.

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IV. Pilot Projects, Wroclaw & SanSebastian, January – July 2012

The requirements of each pilot project are outlined in the initial FutureCity Jobs bid to the EU by the BritishCouncil:

“2 Pilot Actions will take place intwo of the 6 partner cities (one in eachcity). These will engage between 80 and125 young people in creative venturesand/or enterprises. These should buildon creative skills these young peoplehave gained through education but sofar have not been able to transfer theirskills to the labour market. The aim is for these ventures to become self sustaining and therefore create longterm employment for the young peoplethey engage” (Future City Jobs originalBid to the EU).

During this phase, the two pilot proj-ects were launched, with each requiredto run across a minimum of threemonths in a compressed format. Thecore idea here was to test innovativenew projects and raise awareness ofthe potential of the Creative Industriesas an employment generator for youngpeople within each city. There was alsoa focus on knowledge exchange bothwithin and between participating cities,and on advocacy – to demonstrate thepotential future benefits of investmentin Creative Industries activities for employment generation among young people.

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Future City Jobs Project meeting in San Sebastian, July 2012.

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3. Future City JobsPilot Projects

The two pilot projects selected for additional funding offered a realcontrast in terms of methodology anddelivery. Whereas Panato in Wroclawfocused on developing a new way for young creative people to work together to help themselves and theircommunity, Loaf in a Box in San Sebastian sought to demonstrate howcreative projects can transform neg-lected areas of the city while providingnew opportunities for creative work.Both pilots are introduced below.

Wroclaw: Panato – An Artist’s Co-operative Approach for YouthEmployment

Wroclaw, situated in Lower Silesia, is the fourth largest city in Poland.The city has a rich history, reflecting itstime as a Bohemian, Prussian and Ger-man city. Today this history is evident inthe Medieval Old town, in the UNESCOWorld Heritage site of the construc-tivist Centennial Hall, and its presti-gious university. As with the rest ofPoland the last twenty years have seenconsiderable change. Economically,there has been a shift away from manu-facturing to a more hi-tech economyattracting international firms seekinga base in the Country. Culturally, thecity has worked hard to develop newcapacity and infrastructure and tostage itself as a dynamic place for cultural production and consumption.This was effectively outlined with thesuccessful bid to become EuropeanCapital of Culture in 2016. Panato is a co-operative for youngcreative people aimed at the spacewhere Creative Industries and widerarts and cultural sector meet. Wroclawhas a strong arts and cultural tradition,reflected in its several well-known

festivals (the New Horizons film festival, the Wratislavia Cantans music festival,the and Jazz on the Odra River festival),and its cultural venues, both new andold (the aforementioned CentennialHall, the new Museum of Modern Artconstructed out of a WW2 anti-aircraftbunker, and a high-tech modern MusicForum due to open in 2013). However,despite this, there are few opportuni-ties for young creative people in thecity to develop sustainable careers.The Creative Industries have a generally low profile within the wider economy. This means the very idea of a ‘creative job’ is underdeveloped in the city, and those who have this ambition (e.g. the many creative gradu-ates from the University, the Academyof Fine Arts and the numerous gradu-ate schools in Art and Design in Wroclaw) feel they have to leave thecity to find creative employment inWarsaw, Krakow or internationally. Thename Panato is an abbreviation of thePolish phrase “popatrz na to” meaning“look at it”: a reminder that creativityexists everywhere, even if it is hidden.

Objectives & Focus

The objective of Panato is to tacklethe lack of sector visibility and oppor-tunities for young people, alongsidea wider approach which seeks to en-sure the continued regeneration of thecity and a more sustainable future forthe whole community through projectsin the public realm. It also aims to pro-mote more cross-sector cooperationbetween crafts practitioners, artists,and other businesses. The co-operativeaims to develop a recognisable localbrand for high-quality creative prod-ucts and services, with a particularfocus on sustainable production meth-ods as well as tendering for projectsand commissions that arise. Panato’sfirst 10 members bring together indus-trial design, interior and landscape design, photography, fine art, frame

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San Telmo Museum of Basque Society and Citizenship reflects the unique experiences of the Basque people over the last century and their dynamic contemporary culture.

© Oskar Moreno

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making and design, gilding, ceramics,glass and wood art. In addition to itsfocus on generating employmentthrough the cultural and creative indus-tries, Panato places a high value on en-vironmental sustainability (for examplethrough use of recycled materials) anda close relationship with local commu-nities, for example through a mix ofworkshops for children and makingsure that the co-operative’s productionprocesses are visible to the public. During the pilot stage, Panato isnecessarily on a small scale – with 8 members and a management boardof three. Panato has already won a tele-vision sponsored competition for thebest community initiative and a filmabout it will shortly be shown on TV.

Initial OutcomesPanato has already started to raiseawareness of the role and potential ofyoung creative talent to the future suc-cess of Wroclaw. Businesses and thewider-community have come forwardoffering to work with Panato to developprogression routes for young creativepeople, and Panato has already mo-bilised greater networking and cross-sector working among young creativepeople and established businesses and institutions across the city. Wider Outcomes are discussed in Section 4.

San Sebastian: Loaf in a Box – a Mobile Place of Creative Exchange

“I think it is the river that givesa community, a city, its fluidity, becausethanks to the river the unmoving startsmoving” (Professor Iñaki Martínez deAlbéniz Ezpeleta, University of theBasque Country).

San Sebastian, which with Wroclawwill be European Capital of Culture in2016, is a Basque city renowned for itsextraordinary coastal setting (including

the bay of La Concha), its rich historyas a place of leisure and wellbeing, andits gastronomy – with 16 Michelin Starsand excellent pintxos (Basque tapas)available across the city. Its EuropeanCapital of Culture programme will focus on the value of culture for social changeand the promotion of synergies betweensectors that have traditionally beenunder-connected. This is expressed bythe stunning new San Telmo Museum ofBasque Society and Citizenship, reflect-ing the unique experiences of the Basquepeople over the last century and theirdynamic contemporary culture.

Objectives & FocusLoaf in a Box emerged from the core pilot ideas of ‘Techno-EmotionalSpaces’ (TES) – which was selected in the selection meeting in Prague anddeveloped initially in the Future CityGame in San Sebastian. The conceptbehind TES is straightforward – to revi-talise neglected or unheralded parts of the City through mobile temporary(or ‘pop up’) spaces that will be like“urban acupuncture needles which can fix things or promote different activities.” A guiding principle is thatthe spaces should be places of exchange and allow for local creativegroups, artists and young people to develop their own ideas and uses with-out interference. Institutions facilitatethe action where possible.

One such neglected area is alongsidethe River Urumea. The river runsthrough the City, but is often ignoredby tourists and many residents be-cause so much energy is focused onthe coast. However, the river does holda special place in the hearts of youngpeople who often meet on its banksand bridges. The Loaf in a Box projectwas conceived as the first interventionby TES – or in other words, the firstacupuncture needle for the city.

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The concept was originally generatedby La Salsera, a network of young cre-atives specialising in social innovationprojects in this case connected to foodand gastronomy since that is close to the heart of many Donosteria’s (theBasque word for residents of the city).La Salsera had the idea of a mobilebakery, shop and education projectthat lifts the ambition and confidenceof young people. By combining thisagenda with the urban acupunctureidea of TES, the idea for Loaf in a Boxwas born. For the city it was importantthat the test pilot was an incentiveto generate jobs for the young in the creative and cultural sector.

Consisting of five adapted shippingcontainers, Loaf in a Box is a pop upcreative intervention for San Sebastian.It has two main elements:

• Firstly, at its heart is the kitchen,where leading UK-based Australianbaker Dan Lepard (www.danlepard.com)had been instrumental to the project,providing his support and ideasthroughout. Working alongside Dan is well known local baker Ibán Yarza.The kitchen is operating as a kind of food lab for creative bread-making,reviving a tradition and introducingnew innovations in bread-making to San Sebastian.

• Secondly, connected to the kitchen is a shop and workshop area, alongsidea classroom. Here young people are in-troduced to ‘the art of bread-making’,as well as given wider tutorials on sub-jects such as creative entrepreneurial-ism and business development. It hasbecome a temporary social space for dialogue and operates as a statementspace regarding what is possible in such‘marginal’ locations across the city.

While food and gastronomy are not traditionally seen as part of theCreative Industries, Loaf in a Box needsto be placed in the context of San Sebastian where the art of gastronomyis taken as seriously as anywhere on the planet and where connectingdifferent sectors is a central theme of the European Capital of Culture pro-gramme. So a concept that combinesfood and creativity through highly innovative use of space in an area of the city that has been ignored, is seen as an important intervention for nurturing youth employment in the Creative Industries and for developing a creative economy overall.

Initial OutcomesRunning throughout the summer of2012, Loaf in a Box is a pilot for furtherTES projects. The name itself is a playon the British expression of ‘usingone’s loaf’ - for thinking for oneself and acting creatively. The project hasworked hard to inspire local people tothink and act creatively – with a seriesof workshops (on and offline) focusedon different aspects of cooking, busi-ness development and customer services. While relatively modest inconception, the project needs to beseen for the ground-breaking way it ispushing institutions and individuals torethink and reconceptualise the waythey think of areas of the city and therole of the Creative Industries withinthe wider economy of specific cities.Vital to this pilot, in the context of further TES projects, is the extent towhich it has been ground-breaking andthe degree to which it will accordinglymake an impact. Equally important isthe way that it has demonstrated theimportance of working across depart-ments, sectors and institutions whendeveloping employment-generatingprojects in the cultural sector. In addi-tion, it has shown the value of trainingin the practical side of setting-up

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a business in the creative sector – suchas in business planning, time manage-ment, relationship building and pitchingThe design qualities of the pop up con-tainers are themselves symbolic of therole of art and creativity in enhancingpublic space and lifting the aspirationsof local people.

4. Impact and Learning Points

The impact of Future City Jobsneeds to be understood as operatingacross three main areas:• Impact on the cities and regions in-volved – e.g. jobs created, investmentleveraged, confidence built, plans for the future.• Impact on the partners who deliveredthe project – e.g. new knowledge, peer learning, confidence and futurecollaboration.• Impact on cities and regions acrossEurope – e.g. raised awareness of theCreative Industries as a provider of opportunity and employment foryoung people.

In this Section we explore these impacts, but first we focus on the initialseven objectives of Future City Jobs –as defined at the project’s initiation.

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San Sebastian.

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Objective

To research and explore key(best/worst) practices providing

employment opportunities for youngpeople in the creative and cultural

industries in six Progress countriesand EU Member States.

To identify best practices and implement Pilot Actions in two

partner cities.

To disseminate information and raiseawareness about employment chal-lenges for youth in the creative and

cultural industries.

To promote debate and sharing of problems, ideas and solutions atdifferent levels of governance (na-

tional, regional, local), and betweengovernment – social partners –

civil society agencies.

To facilitate mutual learning experi-ences and exchanging good practice

between 6 partner cities in 6 differentMember States.

To spread awareness leading to new actions throughout the 6 PROGRESS participating

countries.

To contribute to the building of a coherent European society encom-

passing the principles of social protec-tion and social inclusion.

Example of how it was met

Series of case studies published on the websiteand a wider communication of good practicein job creation across the Creative Industries.

Two pilot projects initiated in Wroclaw and San Sebastian.

Through the workshops, website, publicationsand planned dissemination events.

Workshops engaged representatives from all levels of government and partnersfrom NGOs.

Through the inception meeting, exchanges, decision meeting, on line platform (website,twitter and facebook) and evaluation process.

Will follow through dissemination events.

Exchange between six partner citiesfrom across Europe.

Table 2 below gives examples of how they were achieved during the project:

Was objectivemet?

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These seven areas capture justsome of the achievements of FutureCity Jobs. Moreover, they should be understood as indicative rather thanproven, because as a complex project,involving multiple partners from 6countries, much of its impact comesthrough processes such as knowledgesharing and exchange, which are hardto quantify. The pilots themselves, be-cause they occurred in such a com-pressed timescale, are also hard to fullyappreciate at this stage – usually theimpact of such projects needs to becaptured over a year or longer to seewhat change has occurred.

With these caveats, it is possible at this stage to develop some broadimpressions of the impact of FutureCity Jobs as a way of presenting theproject as a learning tool for cities and regions across Europe and asa precursor to a strategic investment in Creative Industries employmentfor young people. Below, in Figures 2and 3, we summarise a set of: Strategic learning points – fromthe perspective of the city partnersand networks in which partners are engaged Technical learning points – relat-ing to the structure of the project andincluding project planning and scoping;management and leadership; projectscope; vision and implementation.

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Figure 2. Strategic Learning Points from Future City Jobs

Impact on the cities and regions

involved

Impact on partners who delivered the project

Impact on cities and regions

across Europe

Multi-partner working is key: The project represents the first multi-partner / multi-country project of any scale which has sought to harness the Creative Industries inthe challenge against rising youth unemployment. Bringing external perspectivesand solutions has proved vital in developing approaches which can succeed in the

challenging environment presented by the current economic situation. The blend ofpartners – from northern, southern, eastern and western Europe, has also proved

valuable – for sharing good practice and co-creating approaches which combine gen-eral application and local agency. Future City Jobs heralds the beginning of a newera of multi-partner / multi-country approaches to job creation for young people

in the Creative Industries.

Cross-sector partnerships are vital: The project has successfully brought together the different infrastructural conditions required for effective and inclusive Creative

Industries growth. This includes the learning and skills sector, cultural organisations,planners, organisations committed to tackling youth unemployment, civic leaders,and creative businesses/entrepreneurs. If cities and regions are to successfully nur-

ture their creative talent, then they will need these different infrastructural conditionsto work coherently, with shared missions and goals. Future City Jobs has provided

considerable stimulus and focus to the process of developing new cross-sector partnership-driven approaches.

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A Systemic approach is required: The Future City Game workshops showed thatyouth unemployment needs to seen as a systemic problem alongside other issues thatcities face – such as transport, social exclusion, use of public space, health inequality,ageing and environmental sustainability. Connecting the creation of jobs for youngpeople with helping to tackle these issues is an achievable and logical goal – espe-

cially when linked to specific neighbourhoods or communities within a city. Future City Jobs shows that youth unemployment requires a systemic and multi-agency approach which cannot be tackled by individual departments

of the municipality or single purpose vehicles.

Nurturing entry points for creative talent needs long term commitment: the biggest barrier to creative businesses employing more young people is that

so many creative businesses are very small and thus lack the resources or capacity to take on inexperienced staff. Providing the support structures or mechanismswhich allows them to do so (through combining resources or establishing new

programmes) can make a real difference. In addition, it is imperative that cities andregions work hard to encourage young people to set up their own creative businessesrather than depend on existing businesses for employment. This requires a dedicatedapproach to entrepreneurship training, campaigns to raise the profile of the potential

for creative work, and market-making to develop demand for creative goods and services. Future City Jobs shows that in smaller cities creative entrepreneurship

and the recruitment of young creative talent will require longer-term approaches thatbuild capacity and entrepreneurship, broker employment opportunities for young

talent and stimulate demand for creative goods and services. International partner-ship with other cities is key here – sharing knowledge and building confidence

that this is the right path to take.

Bottom-up solutions work: Future City Jobs challenges conventional thinking on job creation for young people by pioneering fresh approaches to self-employment,

internship and apprenticeships which reflect the changing nature of the Europeanlabour market, the different aspirations of young people, and the realities of

economic development in smaller cities. Both Panato and Loaf in a Box are provid-ing (at least) temporary employment to local young people, but more importantly

are showcasing the potential of creative work, galvanising partners, and lifting confidence. Future City Jobs shows that small-scale local interventions can, when

pitched as part of an international programme, generate sufficient energy, know-howand confidence to develop longer-term strategic investments in youth employmentprogrammes for the Creative Industries. All of the six partner cities are currently

scoping how to develop such an approach in the future (albeit with different levels of commitment).

Impact on the cities and regions

involved

Impact on partners who delivered the project

Impact on cities and regions

across Europe

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Impact on the cities and regions

involved

Impact on partners who delivered the project

Impact on cities and regions

across Europe

A parity of commitment, involvement and expertise is difficult to achieve: Ensuring that all cities engaged in the programme remain equally committed

at all stages has proved to be a real challenge. This is because each partner faces considerable pressure from their ‘day-to-day’. In addition, there are different levels of seniority and expertise across the partners involved in Future City Jobs – whichhas impacted upon the type and level of engagement in the project and the level

of influence/visibility of the project in each city. This has also affected the extent towhich partners were able to contribute to study visits – with some in ‘learning’ modeand others acting as experts. Other factors which made project delivery more chal-

lenging include internal change in the relevant departments of each city – which hasaffected the capacity to focus on delivery; language barriers between participants(English is the working language but levels of English competence vary); and cul-

tural barriers (e.g. attitudes to the commercialisation of culture through the CreativeIndustries, where some partners have been resistant to an openly market-driven

approach to job creation). It has proven especially difficult to maintain a parity ofcommitment and involvement since the two pilot projects were announced – with

non-pilot cities subsequently engaged to differing degrees. Future City Jobs exposesthe merits but

also the challenges of international, multi-agency and cross-sector partnership. Future initiatives should seek to establish a parity of involvement for each partner

– e.g. with each city delivering a pilot; and ensure a parity of senior level commitment from each city.

Enhance the Future City Game model: While this Game methodology was highlysuccessful in driving out fresh thinking and innovative ideas in each of the cities,

it could have been made to work even harder as a component of the project. In particular, it could have focused more quickly on job creation, delivery mecha-

nisms, resources, partnerships and next steps – allowing for more value to have beenextracted from the participants. Future City Jobs embeds an innovative approach to consultation and partnership generation through the Future City Game model,

but this approach needs refinement if its full value is to be leveraged.

Figure 3. Technical Learning Points from Future City Jobs

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Achieving the right structure is critical: Future City Jobs has, broadly, been success-ful in coordinating multiple partners to deliver practical activities with strategic con-sequences for youth employment in the Creative Industries. However, the structure

of the project is not ideal and we should learn from this for future projects. For exam-ple, the project would be more effective over a longer period – e.g. 3 years – so thatlocal partnerships for the pilot projects are less rushed and more effectively rooted.The two cities involved in the pilot projects have delivered a lot in a short time withlimited resources, but there was a sense of urgency to set up pilots: a longer process

of partnership development and planning would have been beneficial to all. In addition, other non-pilot cities would have benefited from a longer-term project –to build trust and co-create agendas and to promote the project to their other inter-national networks. Indeed, due to the pace of the project, it has not been possible to satisfactorily showcase the agenda or its impacts to wider networks of cities and regions across Europe. Future City Jobs has been a rapid demonstrator project that

shows the importance of longer-term development and a balance of delivery andcommunication of impacts to relevant audiences.

Digital platforms are vital yet under-used: Social media platforms (e.g. Twitter andFacebook) have been positioned as central tools in partnership working for FutureCity Jobs – as a way of reflecting on learning, citing good practice from elsewhereand commentating on activities at Future City Games and in the pilots. However,most of the content for these platforms has been generated by the British Counciland TFCC, with variations of engagement by participating cities. The platformshave also been under-used by cities and regions outside of the project – so Future

City Jobs and the agendas it pertains to have not been communicated as effectivelyas desirable. Future projects might benefit from a dedicated digital development rolefor participating cities – so communicating and sharing activities is more effectively

built into the main work programme. Future City Jobs has recognised the importance of digital platforms for international projects as a way of balancing formal and informal communication; but the short time-scale of the project and the above structural issues have meant that digital involvement has been limited.

Impact on the cities and regions

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Impact on partners who delivered the project

Impact on cities and regions

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5. Summary & Main Policy Recommendations

Europe of the potential of CreativeIndustries to generate jobs for youngpeople. More than this, Future City Jobsdemonstrates that stimulating growthin the Creative Economy is not an ad-junct to the wider health and sustain-ability of cities – it is something thatcan directly help tackle the major chal-lenges facing our urban centres andtheir regions. The Future City Games,through the way they ask participantsto think of employment within the Cre-ative Industries in the context of thechallenges faced by their city in areassuch as transport, housing, the publicrealm, health, and inequality, show howjob creation needs to be approached in a systemic and holistic way. Theprocess followed by Future City Jobswas, in microcosm, the same processthat naturally operates in the world’sgreatest creative cities, as RichardFlorida recently outlined (What CriticsGet Wrong About Creative Cities:www.atlanticcities.com):

“The key mechanism at work here isthe city itself. Dense and interactiveconnectors, cities are economic and so-cial organising machines. They bringpeople and ideas together, providingthe platform for them to combine andrecombine in myriad ways, spurringboth artistic and cultural creativity andtechnological innovation, entrepre-neurship and economic growth.”

Each of the cities participating inFuture City Jobs had an existing com-mitment to the power of culture andcreativity in transforming the fortunesof cities. Indeed, each city has been or will be European Capital of Culture.

However, the mechanisms to connectinvestment in culture with job creationfor young people were often lacking.Future City Jobs has provided the plat-form for exchange plus an opportunityfor practical demonstration, which together have lifted knowledge, know-how, confidence and influence. It hasdelivered an orchestrated process ofinternational exchange and dialogue,introduced access to new networks,and leveraged real commitment to the Creative Industries as a source of employment for young people. Investing in culture and creativitydoes not, in most cases, require grandinvestments in infrastructure butshould entail a blend of bottom-up andpartnership-driven approaches thatcombine smaller-scale activities knittedtogether to form a systemic approachto creative city-making. This is how todeliver smart and sustainable growth,to be locally sensitive while globallyopen, and to ensure activities are people-centred rather than driven bydetached civic ambition. The two pilotactivities for Future City Jobs representapproaches to job creation for youngpeople which are bespoke to the localenvironment while inspired and drivenby expertise and support available internationally. Panato, by creating a co-operative,brings scale and sustainability to anotherwise fragile, freelance ecology. By basing itself in a regeneration areaof Wroclaw, being committed to thisspecific context and seeking to workwith and deliver value to the widereconomy, Panato is set to bring longterm community benefit. In San Sebast-ian, Loaf in a Box is an innovative wayto demonstrate how to breathe new lifeinto a neglected area while at the sametime providing employment, connect-ing sectors and showcasing the dynamism of the Creative Economy.

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Together, these pilots, as part of the overall Future City Jobs project,demonstrate what is possible throughinternationally-coordinated, collabora-tive city-making, which addressesa systemic pan-European issue througha targeted local approach. With longertime to nurture partnerships, developknowledge and share learning, FutureCity Jobs could have produced signifi-cantly more. But as the first such initia-tive in Europe with a focus on CreativeIndustries employment for young people, it has raised the stakes andshown the way.

Five Key Recommendations for Policy-makers:

The challenge now is for partnersacross Europe to build on this collabo-ration and coordinate a package of activities that maximise the potential of the Creative Industries as a sectorthat provides jobs for as many youngtalented people as possible. Partnersinvolved in Future City Jobs have generated a set of recommendationsfor policy makers at a city, national and European level seeking to work withthe Creative Industries to generatingemployment for young people.

The five key recommendations are:

A Embrace the distinctive scale and profile of the sector: Successfulprogrammes to generate employmentare those that respond to the uniquecharacteristics of the sector in aparticular location. In Wroclaw, wherethe sector profile as a whole is weak(meaning few businesses in the widereconomy seek to work with local creative talent), building an initiativewhich raises awareness of local creative talent is a vital first step in generating a sustainable sector that enables sustainable careers.

B Bottom-up initiatives have moretraction and buy-in: Individuals, businesses and organisations in theCreative Industries are much morelikely to respond to and engage withprogrammes that reflect their local en-vironment and the ecology of activitieswithin their city and region. Bringingcreative individuals, businesses and organisations together at an earlystage in the planning of programmesgives them the opportunity to use their own knowledge and skills, which ensures they are much morecommitted in the longer run.

C Connect the wider creative and innovation economy: The creative in-dividuals, businesses and organisationsinvolved in Future City Jobs have beenespecially excited by the way the pro-gramme has joined the Creative Indus-tries to the wider challenges faced by their city and region. Programmeswhich create jobs for young peopleand also bring benefit to the wholecommunity generate more awarenessand help challenge pre-conceptions of the Creative Industries being separate to the ‘real’ economy and workings of a city.

D Develop Creative Industries proj-ects which connect smaller cities:With the exception of Prague and Glasgow, Future City Jobs has broughttogether relatively small cities to co-create an agenda for youth employ-ment in the Creative Industries. Thishas exposed the major differences be-tween larger and smaller cities in termsof their capacity to nurture and growthe Creative Industries and highlightsthe need to reconceptualise termssuch as ‘growth’, ‘cluster’ and ‘value-added’ from a smaller city perspective.In turn this helps smaller cities to un-derstand success on their own termsby engaging in their assets in a moremeaningful and self-determined way.

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E Position job creation for youngpeople at the heart of Creative Eu-rope: The Creative Industries dependson talent for its innovation and growthand the future success of Europe’s Creative Economy largely depends on the performance of its talent base.Currently, Europe’s Creative Economyis not fulfilling its potential because it is not effectively engaging the talent ofour young people. The Creative EuropeProgramme can do more here to posi-tion job creation for young people asa major strategic priority. It can also domore to emphasise the importance ofcity-based activities which are coupledwith strong international partnerships.Future City Jobs has led the way hereand its further development presents a major opportunity for Creative Europe and responsible partners.

6. Case StudiesAll case studies are published in full at http://creativecities.britishcouncil.org/future-city-jobs/Below is a short introduction.

Case Study 1: LiveMag, South AfricaLiveMag is a free magazine, issuedevery three months. It is written, designed and produced by young people, and covers a range of topics,from entertainment and sport, to dis-cussion of issues such as universityfees or gang culture. In addition,LiveMag presents opportunities fortraining or employment. Live’s writersall receive mentoring from successfulmedia professionals.

Case Study 2: Arcola Creative Networks, UKArcola Creative Networks is a pro-gramme of creative apprenticeships for young people, run by Arcola The-atre in the London borough of Hackney.By introducing employees to new skills,new practices and new organisations,

Arcola and its partners help to developa cohort of young people who are ableto help shape the future of the creativeindustries.

Case Study 3: Eco-Chic Boutique, UKEco-Chic Boutique is a new life styleand creative retail space based in Glas-gow, now considered to be the largestand best retail centre in the UK outsideof London. Centred around young peo-ple aged 16-24, the Eco-Chic Boutiquetakes furniture and fashion which hasbeen produced by young people work-ing on Impact Arts’ innovative employa-bility programme ‘Creative Pathways’.The boutique then makes these products available for local people. 

Case Study 4: Studio Pešec, SloveniaStudio Pešec is a digital productioncompany specialized in design and development of high-performance,scalable web applications. Foundedin 2004, it has grown rapidly and nowboasts a client list which includes national and international companies. The agency’s strategy for success is based around employing a pool of young, creative practitioners, andnurturing them to allow them to usetheir talent to bring maximum benefitto the agency and its clients.

Case Study 5: Raumaufzeit, GermanyRaumaufzeit is an innovative model forestablishing working space for smallcreative enterprises. It takes disusedbuildings and reconstructs them sothat they are suitable for small creativestart-ups. In this way, Raumaufzeit hasbuilt a network of creative incubatorswhich provide an initial working basefor new creative ventures, and an opportunity to network, learn fromand share with hundreds of otheryoung creatives.

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Eco-Chic Boutique, UK. ©

Impac

t Arts

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Case Study 6: The Midi Music Company, UKThe Midi Music Company [MMC] aims to inspire and help a diverse range of young people to get into music andthe creative industries. MMC promotesa collaborative approach allowingyoung people to work with experi-enced professionals within the musicindustry. In addition, their industry connections help to foster vocationaland enterprise development in themusic business.

Case Study 7: Big Idea, UkraineBig Idea is a platform supporting ideasof young people in Ukraine’s creativeindustries. BIG IDEA was founded bythe Garage Gang Kollektiv (GGGGK)non-governmental organisation withactivities in arts, creative cities and creative society. To support the ideasof young people the BIG IDEA platformoffers social media instruments for collaboration and promotion of innovative ideas along with othersupport that helps to increase the capacity of project

Case Study 8: Contact, UKContact, Manchester, offers a diverserange of opportunities for training andcareer development in a competitiveindustry, helping to equip young peo-ple with the skills they need for em-ployment. It is a dynamic charity thatprovides opportunities for the nextgeneration of creative leaders, artists,and audiences.

Contact, U

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stival 2011, D

igital Duets. ©

Joel Ches

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© British Council 2012, The United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland).