Sam is a lecturer at Middlesex University, which he joined following his work as a Policy & Research Officer for UK Music, the main campaigning and lobbying group for the music industries in the UK. He has previously been a research associate at Teesside University on the Creative Fuse North East project. Sam started his research career as Research Assistant at Creative Cardiff where he worked on creative economy mapping with the team in 2015. He was such an asset he stayed with the team until 2017 when he left to complete his PhD.
He writes:
One of the great strengths of Creative Cardiff has been in bringing together an uplifting community of support for the workforce of the future. The creative industries have always had fewer traditional routes of entry, often not predetermined by qualifications, and for many the entry point is through the bold leap of undertaking self-employment. What Creative Cardiff has managed to do is to carve a community where those in the first stages of their creative careers can seek practical advice, mentorship, and feel part of a positive movement for creative change.
My own story with Creative Cardiff is a good example. I was studying for my PhD in Music when I got the chance to work with the creative economy team mapping Cardiff’s creative economy.
I stayed on to help build Creative Cardiff and received incredible mentorship from the team, who I am still in touch with today, learning key skills I have taken through all my roles since. I had not expected to have engaged with any other creative industries aside from music, but now I have learned how they often interact and collaborate with each other to make meaningful change.
What students often bring to Creative Cardiff is questions that experienced practitioners have always wanted to ask. Their curiosity allows for an examination and construction of pathways into the creative industries that could become sustainable, allowing the talent pipeline to keep flowing.
Being launched from a university also helped Creative Cardiff to focus upon training for the creative workforce of the future.
Aside from the obvious benefits to those who learn new skills, this work also enables universities to truly show important civic leadership.
Creative Cardiff has helped grow sustainable creative industries for Cardiff, keeping a talent pipeline flowing and letting the workers of tomorrow realise their potential today.
