This blog was first presented as an address to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Barwon Heads Art Council (BHAC) on 5th April 2023. The BHAC, located in the Victorian coastal town of Barwon Heads on the traditional lands of the Wadawurrung First Nations people, is an incorporated not-for-profit organisation that:

• manages the Barwon Heads Arts & Community Hub and the Bellarine Arts Trail;

• coordinates a yearly small-events program;

• participates in events such as Mountain to Mouth;

• represents local artists - visual, literary and performing.

In this blog on 21st Century Skills, I will pick up on a number of themes introduced in a previous blog on Young People and the Future of Work to examine critically and creatively (21st century skills!!) the ways in which these skills are understood, and how they have come to be seen as providing some sort of solution to the ‘problem’ of young people’s education, training and employment pathways in/to the future of work.

The project’s Action Research Industry Group (ARIG) comprises stakeholders from various arts-based organisations working with young people, and from across a range of education, training and industry sectors.

Our first VideoAsk question for the ARIG was deliberately open, allowing people to bring their varied perspectives to the project. 

In this blog we are interested in briefly highlighting:

Theme 2: ‘Creativity’ and ‘creative work’ as engaging young people on their own terms.

The project’s Action Research Industry Group (ARIG) comprises stakeholders from various arts-based organisations working with young people, and from across a range of education, training and industry sectors.

Our first VideoAsk question for the ARIG was deliberately open, allowing people to bring their varied perspectives to the project. 

In this blog we are interested in briefly highlighting:

Theme 1: Creativity as problem-solving, and what this means for future societies and the world of work.

In this blog, and in a blog that will follow on 21st Century Skills, I will draw on the work that I have been doing in the last 20+ years in this space to explore the ‘history’ of the ‘problem’ of young people and the future of work, and why at this time the idea of 21st Century Skills is seen to be a productive way for governments, businesses, education systems and communities to manage this ‘problem’.

How do culturally and racially diverse young people participate in the arts? And how does this participation shape particular kinds of skills, competencies and resources that are produced through arts participation? Studies of arts’ ‘impacts’ too easily aggregate the diverse ways in which the arts are experienced. Claims about the economic value of the arts are expressed crudely in terms of numbers of jobs, contribution to growth or a general sense that the arts ‘regenerates’ communities and economies, but there is often little acknowledgement that the arts are not an inclusive space.

ARC to fund Linkage Project “Creative industries pathways to youth employment in the COVID-19 recession”