“It’s exciting to have young people at a critical time in their education being able to hear from professionals in the creative world, and to take part in some of the fantastic workshops and activities that the Creative Careers Fair offers.”
Success Story: Eleanor Cooke - All roads lead to Dreamland.
“Where I didn’t have access to family or friends in the industry to champion me – the Creative Foundation bridged this gap.”
Eleanor Cooke is a local to the Thanet area. After attending school in Ramsgate, she felt that there was not much access to creative work. The job options that were available to her simply did not align with what she wanted to pursue in her career. She knew she wanted to do something creative within events but was unsure what to do next.
She took part in the Creative Foundation mentorship programme in 2022, which culminated in attending the UK Creative Festival, which is hosted at Dreamland in Margate. The experience she gained from the 16-week mentorship, pairing her directly with someone within the creative industry, gave her the confidence and the guidance to pursue a role in producing events.
Eleanor believes the mentorship programme more than anything gave her the confidence to allow herself to explore the creative industries. The motivation from listening to people within the industry gave her a greater understanding of the world she was interested in being a part of, but also the tools to form the connections and gain the experience that was needed to kickstart her career.
“I didn’t grow up with middle-class parents who already worked in the creative industries, who could simply just show me that door. Discovering the possibilities through both the mentorship programme and the UK Creative Festival made me feel that I can do these things. There are so many people who are willing to help you, nurture you and help you learn is really incredible.”
The Creative Foundation was founded by Jeremy Green back in 2017, who set it up with the mission to remove the barriers for entry to the UK creative industries. He believes that if the future of the UK creative sector is to be successful, it needs to reflect the diversity of the full UK population, absorbing the wide range of diversity that the whole country offers, through different cultural backgrounds, ideas and personal experiences. Then in 2021 Jeremy and Dina launched the UK Creative Festival to celebrate the UK’s amazing creative industries and at the heart of the festival there is the first free to attend creative careers fair to introduce aspiring young creatives to the multitude of different creative roles that exist in the UK creative industries,
“We set up the festival because at the heart of it there is a Creative Careers Fair to introduce the multitude of creative opportunities to the young people of Thanet, Kent, and basically everyone who wants to attend.”
The Careers Fair is free to attend for any person between 14 to 25 years old who is looking to pursue a career in the creative industry. Its main goal is to open the doors to all young creatives who come from underrepresented backgrounds, where there can often be significant barriers within the creative industries. A recent research report found that only 16% of people working in creative jobs are from working class backgrounds, despite the industry employing over 2 million people.1 For this reason, the festival is also invested in educating creative employers, which includes any business who employs creatives within their organisation, to tackle this wider issue. The Careers Fair acts as a matchmaking exercise, bringing in employers from creative organisations who are looking to recruit young people, and then giving them a space to interact with prospective young talent that are not being given fair access to potential work opportunities.
Eleanor was looking to learn more about working in the events sector and was paired up with Ed Low for her mentorship. Ed was then working as Head of Growth and Strategy at OrangeDoor, and relished the chance when he was asked to become a mentor for the Creative Foundation.
“It’s about getting those people who are at the top of their game in the industry, and inspiring those young people who are just beginning on their journey.”
Despite the difference in career choices – Ed was not involved in the same field that Eleanor had identified as her main career goal – their initial conversations were still essential. Through one-to-one sessions, Ed was able to understand where Eleanor felt she was at with her employment prospects, and how he could help guide her on the right path to where she wanted to be. From there, they were able to work together and set up a step-by-step plan on how to achieve manageable goals for both during the mentorship programme, and afterwards. Having a self-led approach to the mentoring was a valuable experience for Eleanor, giving her the opportunity to define her objectives in a way that was suited to her needs.
“We set small goals, along with longer-term goals, and tackled it bit by bit. Some of that involved little things like boosting my confidence and working on my networking skills. It was overall a wonderful experience.”