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The young, diverse and enterprising population of Bradford District represents an extraordinary opportunity – socially, culturally and economically. It is cited as one of the reasons for Channel 4 locating to its new headquarters in Leeds City Region.
Head and shoulders image of a young man concentrating on making a film, staring at the image he can see on the monitor screen on the back of his hand held camera. Salts Mill is in the background. Image ©Pishdaad Modaressi
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Young people are already at the heart of many exceptional cultural projects in the district:
The New Focus group at Impressions Gallery was set up in 2012 and has worked with over 120 young people on 20 award-winning projects.
FilmMakers 25 matches young content producers and filmmakers from the District with an industry expert over six months. It addresses the screen industry's need for more diverse employees and helps local producers get a bigger slice of the media cake.
Impact Gamers turns young gamers into games makers, using art, maths and imagination to create fun social games of their own.
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Despite projects like these, there is little joined-up work between the cultural and educational sectors. Few young people take up or are even aware of the opportunities waiting for them in the cultural and creative industries.
Born in Bradford study notes that 'over half of our children will leave school without a low C in English or Maths... which starts to explain why we have some of the worst social mobility within the UK... with all of the long term physical health and mental health problems that brings...’
5 young people pose with cameras as if taking pictures of the viewer. Image ©Impression Gallery
Four young women in lab coats pose for a group photo, laughing and smiling at the camera. Image ©Impression Gallery
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There is patchy provision of creative education across the District’s schools. This leads to a poor understanding from a very early age of the cultural sector and routes to employment.
The University of Bradford and Bradford College have low levels of students on cultural and creative courses compared with peers in the region. The cultural and creative sector itself has skills to share, but is made up of small organisations that lack the capacity to run training and apprenticeship programmes alone.
Meanwhile, a third of our businesses cite a lack of digital expertise as a major block to their growth. Almost a quarter of them say an enhanced local skills pool will help them unlock some of the multibillion-pound investment expected to accompany the West Yorkshire devolution deal.
‘Arts and culture has enough opportunity that it becomes a mainstream option for young people’
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We need to bring the District’s cultural sector together with everyone working in education, skills and career pathways for the cultural and creative industries. Together, we will raise awareness about the rewarding opportunities on offer to Bradford’s young people.
↓ What we'll do
Bradford Cultural Education Partnership will bring the District’s independent cultural sector together with schools, with further and higher education and with the Careers and Technical Education Partnership. Working together, they will advocate for cultural and creative careers and maximise opportunities for young people across Bradford.
Bradford Cultural Education Partnership will focus on creative digital skills with two major strands:
1. Digital Creatives will introduce creative skills to secondary schools in support of Digital Makers, a programme to provide all young people in the District with digital skills. The initiative comes from Bradford Institute for Health Research, which is responsible for the Born in Bradford study of over 13,500 children born at Bradford Royal Infirmary.
2. Digital Storytellers will give families and primary-age children the opportunity to tell stories about the place they live and co-create a Bradford Curriculum.