Over
on this other post I argue that the worse the course at a big city
centre college like London College of Fashion, the more money the
college makes. Never mind that University of the Arts (including London College of Fashion) is the least
popular of any degree awarding university. Expand the image below if you want a closer look: it is the worst colleges sorted by student satisfaction, worst at the top. University of the Arts is fourth worst for Fashion and Textiles courses and fifth worst for design and crafts.
Never mind that there is no useful Knowledge
Transfer Partnership. Never mind that there are no basic business
courses for Londoners including London College of Fashion graduates.
Never mind that the college has no luck recruiting from the trade. The
less adapted the course, the more money the college makes and the more staff they can allocate to government liaison and grant-applications.
most mainstream economics degree - click the number under "degree" to see student feedback stats overseas students national student survey of all students
degree grad. total stimulated interested applied satisfied (1-83)
UCL 7,860 7,115 14,975 72% 92% 65% 79 / 83 Uni of Manchester 5,950 6,970 12,920 74% 76% 59% 78 / 83 protests Uni of Edinburgh 5,085 5,695 10,780 81 / 83 no degree
Kings College 4,115 4,785 8,900 ? ? ? 70 / 83 new course Uni of Sheffield 4,595 3,930 8,525 64% 81% 74% 40 / 83 Uni of Warwick 4,520 3,920 8,440 80% 89% 77% 64 / 83
Imperial College 4,550 3,970 8,520 45% 62% see notes Uni of Oxford 5,760 2,300 8,060 ? ? ? PPE Ec/Hist LSE 4,635 2,280 6,915 60% 74% 52% 83 / 83 Uni of Birmingham 4,670 2,945 7,615 66% 81% 58% 45 / 83
City, Uni of L 4,320 3,180 7,500 57% 82% 52% 60 / 83 Uni of Southampton 4,050 3,175 7,225 66% 83% 52% 72 / 83 Uni of Glasgow 3,845 3,790 7,635 no degree Coventry Uni 3,540 6,175 9,715 93% 100 98% 5 / 83
Uni of Nottingham 3,170 4,070 7,240 79% 81% 75% 6 / 83
Cardiff Uni 3,285 3,825 7,110 46% 69% 52% 73 / 83 Uni of Leeds 3,825 2,760 6,585 89% 92% 77% 38 / 83 Uni of Liverpool 2,075 5,235 7,310 71% 78% 62% 56 / 83
Uni of the Arts,2,035 6,425 8,460 50% 62% 71% 3 / 3 Footwear
If I do a new post, I loose the title links to posts in 2015, so here is a note on the top of an old post.\
It is about a government consultation ending 26th of January 2018 http://veg-buildlog.blogspot.com/2018/01/httpswwwgovukgovernmentconsultationspro.html
... is the start of a response to the migration advisory committee's request for evidence about the effects of overseas students on the UK. Anyone who has been an international student might want to write-in and say why the colleges with most international students seem to be the ones with the worst student feedback and in the most crowded parts of the UK.
At the moment, the questions themselves are near the bottom
Another explore into fashion subsidy: two events which get in the papers at the same time as London Fashion Week or just before
a commercial event also managed by FSI Events Ltd who also run events in Paris and Kiev. The office seems to be above Lloyds bank. Bosses CV on linkedin
Funding is from subscribing fashion colleges, with extra sponsorship from London taxpayers alongside Goerge at Asda, Rimmal, and L'Oreal. The group have also been given ear-time by UK Trade and Investment and a select comittee at the House of Commons, who invited them in to give a presentation that was somehow meant to be in aid of the charity. UK Trade and Investment sent a witness to give evidence to a select committee, explaining how they subsidise fashionistas from this world to attempt export. Apparently the scheme often offers to pay bad debts by buyers, so it is a subsidy for the more canny and dodgy buyers in other countries rather than for anyone who pays tax in the UK.
Surprises to taxpayers in London and the UK
One surprise is the name "Fashion Scout", previously used in the phrase "Vauxhall Fashion Scout" to suggest scouting for fashion from anyone, for example taxpayers who's money helps sponsor the show and are scouted in Vauxhall near where I live, No. The emphasis is on fashion graduates.
Another surprise is that the fashion colleges are so organised in presenting their degree shows to sponsors and journalists, rather than to clothes shops and shoe shops who have trouble getting on the mailing list or a chance to see a degree show. The charity accounts acknowledge two purposes - promoting the students and promoting the colleges - but don't say that students and their employment should be the priority which is silly. If the students do well, the next generation of students will find a course on unistats; there is no need push the name of the college in some vague way. Web sites already say whether a college is vibrant or renowned. That's already too much praise; facts need to say the course syllabus what happens to graduates in this trade were applicants look for work skills.
The third surprise - or it should be a surprise - is that the Mayor of London subsidises something a bit like a closed shop for a particular kind of graduate designer willing to present a "collection", rather than other taxpayers who might sell more or circulate more money through the economy. Someone with a clothes factory for example, maybe in Bradford or Leicester or Harringay, or some of their customers. No.
"the Ethical Award ... was judged by Pants to Poverty owner Ben Ramsden. Excited by
Rosie's work he said; "It's great to see a fresh vibrant perspective on
ethical fashion".. - quote from Gruaduate Fashion Week blog 2013 This is someone who does not promote a welfare state nor UK production, although he says he has nothing against it.
The text on the accounts says the same as what's on the web site. It's a trust with trustees from about ten fashion colleges, and some sponsorship. The web site has about three times as many colleges listed. Trustees meet ten times a year and contract-out management to FSI Events Ltd. The purpose is supposedly to get work and PR for some college graduates, but I don't see the fairness in helping some and not others when all have paid the same, nor how it helps get work when there is no system of stalls to sell the clothes, or none that I know of, and no mail-out to niche market shopkeepers that might want to buy something. Or none that I know of, and I sell shoes for a living so I should know. I don't sell dresses or high fashion, so I might be missing something but it looks as though this event concentrates too much on getting press coverage and too little on selling clothes, a fault shared with London Fashion Week.
Fashion students know there are more fashion graduates than fashion jobs
There should be pressure from students to find out what guarantee of help is available on graduation, and how effective it is, because a lot of fashion graduates don't find work. Looking at accounts of what work they find and write-in on questionarres, it's seldon related to fashion courses. Students and potential students need to find a way to stop colleges promoting colleges and start promoting freelance work skills and employment to fashion students. To say "it's very competative", is not what a student should read tutors as saying in reviews of a course. I think a student wants to read reviews of tutors saying "it's impossible for most people to find a paid job with an employer in fashion, but we can show you how to find a hobby and a bit of freelance work with a web site and a stall and a sewing machine and if it takes-off it might lead to a career". That's the realistic statement I think students should report from good courses.
Looking at courses on unistats.direct.go.uk, and once you are used to using the site's drop down menus, it only takes a few minute to find out that a quarter of graduates from a lot of mainstream courses with "fashion" in the title do not go-on to work or study, with lower figures for University of Derby, University of East London, Bradford College and Wolverhampton University. Any student considering any of those colleges, or the mainstream ones like University of the Arts' London College of Fashion, should reconsider if there's no sensible offer of help to make and sell clothes at the end of the course. A chance to compete to pay to be in an event a bit like ballet display for an invited audience is not the same thing, and college reps sent to organisations like Graduate Fashion Week ought to think what helps their students work freelance rather than what attracts most column inches for an event and maybe helps get a job at M&S for one graduate.
Colleges further north, where workshop space is a bit cheaper, might have a bit more luck and set-up an alternative fashion week aimed at making sales for manufacturer-designers. The format could be more of a market for student and gradate stallholders than a catwalk show, most of the time, and be combined with help for students making their products or finding local workshops to make the products. Some system for funding fabric, thread, machine time, and stall space as part of the college service could help a lot. Stallholders might not want to work every day or give up other low-paid day jobs, but £12,000 a year salary after graduation is typical for northern colleges like Wolverhampton or Bradford; colleges for teenagers can score £11,000, so a chance to do something independant and maybe earn almost as much on a stall could appeal. Students running stalls might get-over their well-known shyness to attempt any job other than designing; they might become more interested in pattern cutting which is better paid, or something like manufacturing. Whatever they choose, if it's freelance they're more likely to create work for other people as well as leaving the handfull of jobs like M&S buyer open for the hundreds of other people who graduate after fashion courses each year.
The colleges in more expensive areas score little better than colleges at the bottom of the list, with students from some University of the Arts fashion courses only writing £15,000 salary on a typical survey form a year after graduating. I don't know if that goes further in London than £12,000 in Bradford, but neither salary goes far.
If I get-around to looking-up any more unistats data on fashion graduate employment, I'll add it to this list.
Followed by a course from that college with "fashion" in the title and link to stats
Then the proportion reporting that they're in work after six months, or the proportion in work or more study, and the average reported salary. The students who don't return the form are more likely, I guess, to be less employed and lower paid.
There's another group of colleges for the Samsonite International Catwalk Competition, but I don't know where to get employment figures for their graduates
The fake words "ethical fashion" were invented in 2005.
At the same
time, government was pumping millions of pounds into Anglo-Chinese trade
in the creative industries. UK Trade and Investment had been given the
priority. The London Development Agency had an office in Beijing, for
reasons that were never clear. "Minister James Purnell" is quoted in the grant proposal. So is this a plot about secret agents,
funding PR efforts that would take words like "British", "jobs",
"Vegan", "Fair Trade", "Organic", "no fur", "Human Rights" and "Democracy" out of fashion? And replace them with phrases like "concious awareness" and "artisan" and "ethical fashion"?
Did the UK Ambassador to Peking stop raising questions about human rights
and say "that's a nice jacket - shall we go shopping?" instead?
Some of what government got-up to at the time is listed in this grant
proposal asking for 80% of the Higher Education Funding Council's
Innovation Fund, which was duly paid.
This is an unsympathetic transcript of University of the Arts
grant proposal. No words have been changed but tables and graphics in
the original may not convert. Basically there is no safeguard against
some creative accountant setting up a seminar called "making it
ethically in China", encouraging people to use Chinese manufacturers,
and taking tax money of UK manufacturers. The thing seems to be built on
a momentum of name dropping and hot air by people who believe nonsense
like "the knowledge economy" to justify the world they see rather than
look at the human rights record of the Chinese government or the
exchange rate manipulation of UK and Chinese governments against the
interests of people in the UK. The courtier-ship and grant-artistry
starts here.
HEIF 3 Competition Stage 2 Application Form Creative Capital – World City
Part A The case for the project
Creative Capital – World City will provide the specialist business,
economic, technical, creative and cultural expertise required to support
the UK creative industries expansion into key world markets. The
partner universities, which are leaders in these complementary fields,
together with the Centre for Creative Business, will deliver this
through the Creative Industries Observatory in London and 5
international business hubs in China and India.
“Our economic future lies in high-value, knowledge intensive industries. Put simply, to make the UK the world’s creative hub”
In keeping with UK Government priorities (most recently
expressed in the 2006 Budget) and regional policy for London, the
purpose of this innovative project is to increase the competitive
advantage of UK creative companies doing business, or wishing to do
business in India and China, thereby developing the world market for the
UK creative industries. Creative Capital – World City will directly
support UK companies in identifying and siezing new opportunities,
understanding the regional social, cultural, economic and business
contexts, preparing their business plans and strategies, and identifying
and successfully engaging in business development opportunities in
these countries.
Building on proven and successful research and HEIF knowledge
transfer (KT) activities e.g. Centre for Creative Business, Enterprise
Centre for the Creative Arts and Own IT (Creative London IP advisory
service), a new London based centre for expert knowledge in the creative
industries will be established. The project will also work with UK-wide
creative companies and key creative networks to research creative
activity / opportunities and succesfully penetrate and expand demand in
the target markets through dedicated staff at five Creative Business
Centres overseas. The essence of knowledge transfer in this
international context relies upon creating and supporting unique
partnerships and collaboration etc to enable particular projects (such
as fashion or design projects) to be accomplished. Staff at the Centres
will be a critical resource to assist creative companies in sustaining
key business relationships in India and China. The project will provide:
The Creative Industries Observatory (CIO), a facility for UK
creative businesses which will gather, interpret and deliver high
quality relevant intelligence on the target markets and Creative
Industry trends in the UK, China and India
5 internationally located business Creative Business Centres - hubs –
operated by dedicated business development specialists through which
opportunity/ creative business activity and market intelligence can be
channelled between Chinese, Indian and London/UK businesses
Networking opportunities in the emerging markets
Liaison with local knowledge and expertise in the target markets
New, carefully targeted, KT activities to assist international
development of creative businesses and, through structured training,
build their confidence to engage with Indian and Chinese businesses
Support to business in exploiting new creative business opportunities in these emerging markets
Additional direct foreign investment into London and the UK
Development of 3rd stream income from KT related to the creative
industries for a range of UK HEIs
(A i) Description of the Innovative nature of the project
The innovative nature of the project lies in
Its international ambition i.e. the distinctive UK - China - India
dimension which responds to ambitious UK government plans for the
creative industries
Its key role for the UK economy in establishing a Creative
Industries Observatory, the centre of expert knowledge for understanding
and supporting UK creative companies either already engaged in or
wishing to enter the emerging markets of China and India
The establishment of international Creative Industries benchmarks based on CIO data
The development of international business/knowledge transfer hubs, the Creative Business Centres
Combining leading edge technology, economic and international
studies and applied research with world class creative art and design
and business management
A strategic and innovative alliance with highly appropriate corporate partners, HEIs and their networks
The use of international HEI partners with established geographical
presence and contact networks in the target regions which will be of
immediate help to the project
The innovative use of existing KT networks in London/UK including Centres for Knowledge Exchange networks
Targeting of international KT for the creative industries, with a
specific focus on strategic areas of opportunity for UK plc such as
digital media and design e.g. Fashion, communications and product.
(A ii) Articulation of need
There are numerous statistics confirming the importance of the
creative industries to the UK economy and the need for them to
internationalise:
In 2001, creative industries accounted for 8.2% of UK GDP and
contributed £54.8 billion to UK Gross Value Added, £112 billion in
annual revenue and £11.5 billion in exports.
From 1997-2001 UK creative industries grew by an average of 8% per
annum, compared to an average of 2.6% for the whole of the economy.
Creative industries contribute £21 billion to London’s output, a
considerable amount juxtaposed with the City’s £35 billion. In terms of
jobs growth creative industries are London’s most important sector
From 1997-2002, employment in the UK’s creative industries grew at
three times the rate of the economy as a whole. In June 2003 creative
employment totalled 1.9m jobs.
The global market value of the creative industries has increased
from $831 billion in 2000 to $1.3 trillion in 2005; more than 7% of
global GDP
These are vital statistics that need to be kept up to date. The
Creative Industries Observatory will liaise with DCMS and other agencies
to design and develop an effective programme of ongoing statistical
data research.
H.M. Government, via the DCMS and other departments/ agencies,
has targeted the creative industries as an important economic sector for
UK plc. The London Development Agency has taken a strong lead in
setting the regional economic agenda for London with respect to the
creative industries. Through its Creative London agency, it has
delivered crucial intervention and support to London-based creative
businesses.
At the London Business School in November 2005 Creative
Industries Minister James Purnell announced the Creative Economy
Programme. This seven-step programme will ensure that cultural
institutions, policy makers and funding organisations work together to
support the growth and productivity of the creative industries.
Concurrently the DCMS announced a new measure to promote UK creativity
globally. DCMS and UK Trade & Investment, with other partners in
government, are supporting the work of three industry led export groups
helping to develop the Government strategy for the export of goods and
services from the Creative Industries sector:
● Creative Exports Group (CEG) ● Performing Arts International Development (PAID) ● Design Partners
In February 2006 the Creative Industries Minister announced that
7 experts have been appointed to lead the Creative Economy Programme
and its drive to make Britain the world’s creative hub
Government recognises the tremendous growth in importance of
trade with India and China to the UK, e.g. UK-India Education and
Research Initiative (UKIERI) pump primed by £10M of UK government
funding which was announced by the Prime Minister in November 2005, the
agreement to grant 1,000 working visas a year for Chinese graduates to
gain work experience in the UK, the proposed Phase 2 of the Prime
Minister’s Initiative to support HEI international activities (April
2006) and the expansion of the Scholarships for Excellence programme -
aimed at building links between Chinese business community and UK HE –
to all of which University of the Arts London (UAL) will contribute.
A prime source of help for UK companies to improve their
international trade is the government agency UK Trade and Investment.
Following a recent announcement by Gordon Brown, ‘a revamped UK Trade
and Investment will set new targets for expanding trade with China and
India and other emerging economies’.
The issue for UK HEIs and for the creative industries, typified by
small business, is how do they engage with these international
opportunities in a realistic and effective way?
The Creative Capital – World City project has been designed to
give direct support to the Government’s Creative Economy Programme. It
will work with the DCMS/ UKTI and other agencies to deliver the
Government strategy for the export of goods and services from the
Creative Industries sector. Creative industries companies will benefit
through specialist KT support from universities with relevant expertise,
offered in liaison with UKTI support.
London/ UK creative businesses intending to begin trading in
India/China need help. There is a key need in China and India to ensure
their international developments are sustainably structured for the
long-term. They need market intelligence, local contacts, access to
Indian and Chinese business networks, showcasing, B2B introductions and
local knowledge. They also need assistance with understanding and
addressing cultural requirements and specific training in how to best
exploit international business opportunities. Partner HEIs need to seize
the opportunity for growing 3rd stream income for KT services involving
UK creative exports, the demand for which is high in India and China.
“The project looks exceptional and will make a major
contribution to the innovation challenge that the UK faces”. Jonathan
Kestenbaum CEO of NESTA
“This is a strategically important project for London which will
provide clear opportunities to work collaboratively in various ways
including staging international events showcasing UK creativity, e.g.
internationalising the London Design Festival and the London Film
Festival” Tom Campbell - Creative London - a committed delivery partner
that welcomes the alignment of the project objectives and intentions
with its own creative industries internationalisation programme.
Luke Johnson Chairman of C4 TV has given the project his
support. Andrew Summers chairman of Design Partners, the government body
(supported by UK Trade & Investment and DCMS) promoting
international trade and investment for UK design businesses supports the
project and is keen to work with it.
“British Design Innovation very much welcomes it and are keen to
loan any support we can and get directly involved where appropriate”.
Maxine Horn CEO of British Design Innovation, (which has 4,500
commercial design practices registered with it - representing 95% of the
UK commercial design market).
"Creative Capital - World City is an important and timely
initiative which is likely to provide invaluable support and
intelligence to creative companies looking to do business in China and
India”.
Frances Sorrell - The Sorrell Foundation"
The requested £5 million of HEIF 3 funding is crucial to the
project. Given their teaching, research and other third stream
commitments, the partner HEIs would not be able to undertake the
Creative Capital –World City project without this necessary additional
funding.
(A iii) Planned impact on UK’s economy and society
This project will not lead to British creativity fuelling
Indian/Chinese market ascendancy. It will enable UK companies to compete
effectively with other first world players by embedding London/UK
creative expertise in business development opportunities in India/China.
Leveraging the existing collaborative projects and established networks
of the partners, the project will:-
analyse markets in China and India, understand what London/UK
creative businesses can offer and through the 5 Creative Business
Centres, broker interactions between the market and companies
analyse the needs of UK creative businesses to develop specialist
‘toolkits’ which interpret and contextualise generic support materials
from for example, DTI/UKTI, and supplement these with targeted
research/trend analysis and training
assist creative businesses to ‘sell’ creativity and innovation,
including co-investment and co-development in what are crucial emerging
market places whilst safeguarding their IP value/assets
safeguard existing creative industry jobs and create new ones in London and the UK
grow third stream income for a wide range of HEIs in London/UK
through innovative KT including business internships, international
‘KTPs’, MA/MBA exchange and new course development, and
internationalised academic input
actively identify and feedback intelligence on international
business opportunities to London based creative industry companies and
key networks
improve knowledge of UK creative industries economic performance and
establish international Creative Industry benchmarks to measure
performance
(B i) Key Project Partners
The core partnership is strategically complementary and has a
track record of designing, managing and delivering on major publicly
funded projects including large--scale research projects and knowledge
transfer under HEIF 2. It brings together
University of the Arts London (the lead partner)
LBS
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
Kings College London
Centre for Creative Business (a UAL/ LBS joint venture)
The partnership features universities recognised as leading UK
institutions with 5/5*research grades, which through well established
networks are already very active internationally in student recruitment,
course delivery and knowledge transfer. The partners are well known to
each other, have very good working relationships and share the ‘big
picture’ with respect to their strategic international development.
Together they provide a highly competent force, equipped with creative
industry related art, design, technical, technological, political,
cultural, social, economic and business management expertise to assist
UK creative businesses to succeed in India and China. The high quality
knowledge transfer, dissemination and business support networks that the
partners are already engaged in will be leveraged to drive further
business involvement for ‘Creative Cities. These same networks are also
adept at monitoring and analysing user involvement to ensure that the
project delivers required outcomes. The project has the support of major
creative industry organisations, creative clusters and creative
companies in each target area.
The project is based at University of the Arts London, the UK
University most closely linked to those creative industries. UAL plays a
vital role in serving the knowledge transfer needs of the creative
industries in London and the UK, in the arts (visual and performing),
design and communications. It already provides a wide range of excellent
creative industry focused K T services to London/ UK including,
Innovation Centre, Design Laboratory, Centre for Fashion Enterprise,
Fashion Business Resource Studio, CoVE Retail, CoVE Fashion, Own It
Intellectual Property Advice Service (in partnership with Creative
London), Artquest, The Intelligent Media Initiative. Exchange - London’s
creative Centre for Knowledge Exchange, IP commercialisation (e.g.
licensing, start-up and spin-out companies – via UAL Ventures ltd),
consultancy and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.
In collaboration with London Business School, University of the
Arts London operates a joint HEIF 2 funded venture - the Centre for
Creative Business tasked with driving innovative new forms of UK-based
creative business out of LBS and UAL MBA/ MA programmes through its New
Creative Ventures programme and assists existing creative businesses to
grow significantly through its Building the Creative Ventures programme.
CCB has been a major success story. It is often cited by the Creative
Industries Minister James Purnell as an excellent example of what can be
done when two leading HEIs with strongly complementary disciplines come
together.
(B ii) Indicative contribution from each HEFCE funded partner
Partner Relevant Expertise Contribution
King’s College London Evidence Network; School of Social Science and Public Policy; Cities Group;
School of Humanities;
Risk Management Centre Expertise in evidence based policy methodology
Economic impact techniques
London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise (HEIF 2 funded project)
International, interdisciplinary research using spatial techniques to investigate cultural and economic development.
School of African & Asian Studies Centre for South Asian
Studies; Centre for Contemporary China Institute; SOAS Language Centre;
SOAS Interface Interdisciplinary approach to understanding the context
and dynamics of the target markets
Language and cultural programmes for business to develop skills in Chinese and South Asian languages
London Business School Aditya V Birla Centre
Innovation Centre
Digital Transformations
Mutually beneficial academic exchange between Indian business and the global business community
Macro and micro knowledge of the digital technology industry and access to businesses
Social and economic impact of information and communication technology at macro and micro levels
Centre for Creative Business Driving innovative new forms of
creative business; assisting existing creative businesses to grow
significantly. Management development programmes
- Potential internationalisation action.
Database of 5,000 creative businesses
Track record of delivering high profile events
Through the combination of its complementary skills and knowledge the partnership will provide:
Guidance on the data collection methodologies and interpretation methods for the Observatory (KCL)
Insights into the cultural, political, and economic dynamics of the
target countries and our Creative Business Centres within them (KCL/
SOAS)
Expertise in the delivery of specific aspects of activity such as
languages/learning advice, business strategy, investment appraisal and
risk appraisal (KCL/ SOAS)
Access to the best possible core data on UK creative businesses and routes for the project to communicate with them. (CCB)
First rate executive education specifically relevant to the creative industries in the UK and the target markets (LBS/ UAL)
Collection of and access to existing published and unpublished reports, and mapping exercises (UAL/ LBS/ CCB)
Each of the partners brings to the project considerable
experience in the management and successful delivery of major publicly
funded projects such as UAL’s £5m CETL and Screen Academy projects,
King’s London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise and LBS Centre for
Scientific Enterprise Ltd.
(B iii) Project Management Arrangements
The University of the Arts London as the Lead Partner will be
the accountable body. A Project Director will be appointed to manage the
overall project and will travel to the five Creative Business Centres
to ensure that the deliverables are achieved. The job descriptions and
person specifications for both the Project and Observatory Director
posts will reflect the need for these staff to have demonstrable
experience in an international context. A Management Board will direct
the strategic management of the project. A leading representative of the
Creative Industries will chair the Board. It will have membership from
each of the partners, employers and the project team. Invited Observers
e.g. Mayor of London’s Office, UK Trade and Industry, OST, and liaison
with advisory bodies in the priority sub sectors will further ensure
full employer engagement.
Part C Detailed Business Plan
(C i) Activities 2006-08 and beyond
This innovative and necessary project has three inter-related
components: the Project Management Centre, the Creative Industries
Observatory and five Creative Business Centres in China and India.
This is not intended to be a short-term project. The initial
project lifespan funded by HEIF 3 will be extended into future years
with income generated through the provision of KT activities and
services both in London/UK but primarily in the target markets in China
and India. To lay an effective foundation for this project it is
anticipated that a pre-project preparation, consultation and staff
recruitment period will be required. We therefore suggest that the
official project start date/public launch might reasonably be deferred
to late 2006 as the project is phased in.
Working with the enthusiastic support of key local agencies
including Creative London and London First the project will establish
the Creative Industry Observatory in London and five international
business hubs (Creative Business Centres) located in China and India (a
timeline for the project appears below in Section C vi). The project
will work with Business Links for London, London Chamber of Commerce and
other creative industry business networks in London and the UK, to
reach the largest possible number of creative businesses. The project
also has the direct support of numerous delivery partner companies
including large corporates such as Deloitte that are already well
established and active in China and India. Through close liaison it
will complement and enhance the work of UKTI (noting the particular
emphasis that UKTI is now expected to apply to developing trade activity
with China and India), British Council, Creative London, the proposed
National Centre for Design and Creativity (Cox Report recommendation)
and the Mayor’s Office/Think London operation in Beijing. The operation
of these elements of the project will be coordinated through the Project
Management Centre at the University of the Arts London.
(C ii) Project Management Centre
The Project Management Centre will provide the financial and
administrative management for the project. The Project Director will
coordinate and manage the work of the Business Development Managers
(BDMs) in the UK and at the Creative Business Centres in China and India
and will liaise closely with the Director of the Creative Industries
Observatory. UK based BDMs will work with creative industry networks,
companies and agencies. Partner based BDMs will also be tasked with the
internal ‘selling’ of the project in order to ensure that partners
benefit fully from the project and contribute to the project in terms of
the international knowledge transfer opportunities through the Centres
and the provision of specialist consultancy services through the
Creative Industry Observatory.
(C iii) The Creative Industry Observatory
Based at UAL’s: London College of Communication, the Creative
Industry Observatory will be developed as an authoritative information,
observation and dissemination resource. Staffed by specialist
information managers, analysts and researchers the Observatory will:
Collect and provide datasets on e.g. London and UK Creative
Industries activity; creative businesses in UK China and India and new
creative business opportunities.
Commission research to plug gaps in baseline creative industries subsectoral analysis/market analysis and regulatory frameworks
Produce publications/journal/information updates
Organise and present conferences/seminars/workshops
Carry out brokerage/introductions between creative industry companies through its events programme
Additionally the Observatory will also accept commissions from
agencies e.g. DCMS and DTI, to research, provide and maintain urgently
needed fresh creative industries data e.g. provide a London and national
creative industries subsectoral primary baseline data analysis/
tracking exercise. It is expected that this will aid project
sustainability.
(C iv) The International Creative Business Centres
The project will develop Creative Business Centres in:
China: · Beijing · Hong Kong · Shanghai India: · Mumbai · New Delhi
The five Centres will not be “cold starts”, but will be cost
effective arrangements that build on existing agency, university and
corporate partnerships and networks e.g. with the Beijing Design Centre
and Tsinghua University. This will enable an immediate project presence
in the target markets, supported locally through links with our partner
Universities in China and India, which will be ready to take advantage
of known business prospects. Activity at Centres in each location will
be quickly ramped up through these proven operational relationships.
Each of the Creative Business Centres will have a physical
presence, staffed by dedicated business development specialists and
co-located in prime positions typically within delivery partner
organisations. Business development staff at the Centres will
proactively seek, generate and orchestrate new business opportunity,
broker relationships between Chinese, Indian and UK companies and
provide technical, cultural and ‘trouble shooting’ support. The Centres
will provide a locus for further developing influential networks in the
target markets, for market research and data gathering, for channelling
market intelligence back to the UK. All Centres will be equipped with
appropriate technology to enable fast reliable continuous contact
including video conferencing between staff at each Centre, the Creative
Industries Observatory and the project management centre. Where local
partnerships are unable to provide suitable venues, appropriate
commercial premises will be hired for the staging of events. The volume
of KT and business activity driven by each Centre will be monitored and
should any of these be performing at a lower level than expected, a
virtual Centre established in agency premises may replace the physical
presence.
(C v) Key outcomes and deliverables of the project will be:
The establishment of the Creative Industry Observatory and its
subsequent operation as an exemplar of sector focused KT excellence; as a
source of specialist expert knowledge, leading to new joint ventures
and commercial agreements between London/UK companies and those in China
and India . It will provide valuable contextualised intelligence to and
from the Creative Business Centre, UKTI and other agencies, to UK
businesses via on-line and other media/events
The establishment of 5 International Creative Business Centre networks to support knowledge transfer activity in stated areas
Estimated £2.0m p.a. revenue potential from international knowledge transfer activities by July 2008
12-15 international business development staff appointed across the network
5 databases of international contacts
15 regionally focused (i.e. 3 per Centre) marketing and promotional events per year
1500 creative industries businesses briefed through 6 - 10 London
based strategic business opportunity seminars during the project
The Creative Capital – World City website
Regular specialist on-line e-briefings on India/China opportunities
On-line multi media/interactive specialist support for new business development
100 international business-to-business introductions brokered
10 international business opportunity focused ‘grow your creative
business’ events for London based creative industry companies and 10
similar events delivered locally for Indian and Chinese creative
companies which will showcase London/UK creativity
‘International Knowledge Transfer Partnerships’ and ‘mini-KTPs’
(will be developed based on experience of graduate placement in
international locations) that will be sponsored by Indian and Chinese
companies
(C vi) Independent Evaluation Arrangements
Evaluation will be a constant theme/presence throughout the
project. The individual contributions of each partner will be subject to
several levels of quality control and evaluation, the first line of
which will be the existing quality control procedures of each partner.
The project management team will internally evaluate each significant
project event and interaction in line with customer care best practice –
reporting biannually to the Board. Impact assessments will be made of
all operational aspects of the project.
Separate to these measures there will be external evaluation at
initiation, during and on completion of the project. This will be
carried out by independent external specialist evaluation consultants
who will be appointed to the project following a selection process. A
budget element has been earmarked for this, and potential sources, e.g.
University of Glasgow Cultural Policy Group and Innovation Partners Ltd,
have already been approached.
(C vii) Dissemination of Project Results
A comprehensive dissemination strategy will be agreed with the
Management Board. The principle means of dissemination – not only of
results but of process and progress – is intended to be the project
website and links to the websites of partners including London First and
Creative London. It is also intended that the project will also be
featured in creative industries publications and those of the Mayor’s
Office and LDA. The Observatory will launch the Creative Industries
Journal as the authoritative refereed commentary on the creative
industries in the UK, which will also disseminate data/findings from the
project. The importance of disseminating information about the project
and its impact, to business organisations, trade and professional
associations; the HE Sector; UK government agencies; knowledge transfer
networks other relevant CKEs in London and the UK and most importantly
of similar bodies in China and India is recognised. There will be
publications emanating from the project as well as targeted seminars and
events targeted both at specific creative sub-sectors, broader business
and the broad Creative Industries. Reference will be made to HEIF/HEFCE
and DTI-OST throughout the dissemination process.
(C viii) Exit Strategy and Sustainability
This is an ambitiuous venture, with sustainability as an
achievable objective. It is envisaged that significant income will be
generated from the proposed activities, but this may not be fully in
place within two years.
The initial project lifespan funded by HEIF 3 will be extended
into future years with income generated through the provision of high
quality knowledge transfer activities and services both in London/UK but
primarily in the target markets. The first two years will feature an
awareness raising campaign as the partnership builds the Creative
Business Centre brand recognition at the initial locations. It will also
further business partnerships and investment through which the brand
and thus the centres concept can be extended to more geographical areas.
The project will build a new self-sustaining business model, which will
continue to grow in line with the anticipated growth of the Chinese and
Indian markets for the creative industries.
It is expected that there will be significant opportunities for
co-investment with Chinese and Indian partners, which will defray a
large part of the direct operational costs to the partners in future
years. The business model also anticipates the possibility of
co-developing the Centres as collaborative businesses drawing in more UK
creative companies, as the market for creativity in China and India
extends to many other cities. This will give the partnership a much
wider engagement with the Chinese and Indian marketplace, greatly
increasing the potential returns to London/ UK creative businesses, to
associated Chinese and Indian companies, and to the HEI partners as the
demand for their knowledge transfer services grows. Revenue (in part
potentially royalty payments) from this will feed back to the project to
support the continued marketing and management of the business. The CIO
will also actively seek to generate income through commissions and
events. If insufficient progress towards some areas of self-sufficiency
has been made two years from the start date, the project could be scaled
back (e.g. some of the Creative Business Centres could become virtual
centres to a level that can be sustained by the income generated from
them) without loss of its overall thrust.
HEFCE/OST are being asked to provide essential start up funds to
enable infrastructure development, cover expected start up costs and
provide a stable platform for the first two years on which a sustainable
operation can be built. Our belief in our ability to achieve
sustainability is supported by the way in which the partners have over
recent years been developing successful overseas recruitment and
consultancy businesses in the target regions.
(C ix) Key Risk Factors
A strong partnership has been put together that has good
experience of working successfully overseas. The potential pitfalls and
challenges are largely known and many have been encountered and
effectively dealt with in the past. However, this does not mean that the
partnership is complacent about risk. As part of the business plan, a
fuller assessment and treatment of risk will be undertaken with King’s
College London’s Risk Strategy Group. A risk management strategy will
subsequently be devised. Some indicative risks have been set out below.
Indicative Risk Rating Action
Unable to recruit appropriate staff or Low/ Medium Phase these international activities slightly
premises in China/India slower than in timeline
Partners unable to agree on share/ Low/ Medium Board to develop formal partnership agreements
distribution of income/benefit
Lack of KT business opportunities in Low/ Medium Vigorous campaign in target markets
China and India with UKTI and delivery partners in target markets
Income does not grow sufficiently Medium Scale back Hub/CIO activity to sustainable level
to fund Year 3 operation recast some centres as virtual centres
Seek co-investment/ merger with local partners
Too many CI sub sectors too early. Medium Focus on key selected areas initially
Slow bureaucracy in both countries Medium/ High Local partners well used to this will advise/ guide
Financial export restrictions/guarantees Medium Chinese income held in China and used to offset partner
(mainly China) costs on other (e.g. recruitment) operations.
Absence of experience of international High Careful screening/selection of business partners,
business standards use of strong contracts, particularly IPR
but recognise that even so, risk remains
The project represents a novel HEIF/business model but the
experience of the partners in developing international operations and in
delivering on HEIF/ third stream developments and other major
collaborative projects reduces the risk associated with it
(C x) Finances
Lessons learnt.
These are the lessons learnt so far from delivering our HEIF 3
project - to find a full copy of our winning bid please click download
on this page.
1. The first lesson is that everything takes much longer than
you might expect it to. Everything is being done at a distance, in
different time zones. In the case of China particularly, time needed to
be spent to understand the business culture and the systems of business
development before the programme could really begin to engage with
Chinese business. There is also a very real need to overcome a
significant language barrier. All of this was more or less foreseen,
but the practical impact of it on our ability to mount the programme
only became apparent once the programme got underway.
2. Having an in-country presence of senior UK managers is highly
desirable, yet this is not practicable. Although we have fairly
frequent visits to China and India to compensate, we remain to a very
large extent reliant upon those that we have recruited. Good local
knowledge and contacts are highly valued, but this by itself is not
enough. Good experience of and ability in business development is also
extremely important. Recruiting the right people is crucial as is
regular management contact with and support for them through a mix of
technology based and face-to-face communication.
3. Recruiting the right people has been problematical and more
expensive than had been expected. Not surprisingly, compensation has
had to be adjusted to reflect market conditions in each locality.
Because recruitment to the programme is taking place during a period of
private sector expansion, the market in each locality has been found to
be particularly tight with respect to finding well-qualified individuals
with good language skills. This has led to higher costs and delayed
recruitment.
4. Reliance has had to be placed on outsourced services and
agents to provide the kind of ‘back office’ administration and support
that we take for granted in our own HEI. This is largely because our
own in-house services do not necessarily have the experience or
expertise to provide much needed guidance and support to a programme
that operates across international boundaries and under different
legislative regimes. Initial assumptions concerning the extent to which
existing relationships with our network of recruitment agents could be
leveraged to provide such services have not been borne out in practice.
This has all placed additional strain on the Programme Management Team,
which it is fair to say has done tremendously well to cope with a severe
learning curve.
5. The development of a fully functioning internal and external
partnership also requires a lot of time and effort even if, as in our
case, those partners are largely known to you and have experience of
working together on different projects. Large-scale projects bring
their own tensions and partners bring their own expectations and
agendas. We have learned that there is a clear need for good
communication (which we have not always managed as well as we might
wish), for clear understanding of the mutual purpose and objectives of
the project (not always acknowledged within a partnership) and that
while consensual agreement is always sought, resolute leadership is a
quality that should not be underestimated.
6. Having the support and advice of very experienced and
accomplished Creative Industries business people on the Programme
Advisory Board has been extremely beneficial in moving towards the
achievement of a balanced approach to the commercial and academic
aspects of international knowledge transfer as well as assisting with
strategising and implementing the programme.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Summery by transcriber:
Nobody who can get a better job would want to work in a quango
supporting Chinese autocracy at the expense of people who pay for the
quango. It's a nonsense. Nobody applies.
Nobody knows what this project is for and those who apply by
accident and perhaps really think that China trade on fiddled exchange
rates by both sides is good for taxpayers in the UK, get the job. Well
done. They also find a mixture of briefs and interventions which keeps
them in London and prevents them doing the job they hoped to do.
Frankly it's a plaything of courtiers; job creation by Marie Antoinette
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/univ...
is the new contact page and London College of Fashion aren't great at admin jobs like forwarding an old email address to a new one.
I can answer the question on their behalf.
Ethics are an important part of the PR training which is taught at the college and practiced by some government-funded offices based in its buildings. The trick is to say "Ethical" at the beginning of the sentence, so that everyone things you mean their particular ethic, and then come-up with a really vague ethic like "sustainable" in the next breath, and only to talk about that. There has been great success in using this technique to increase help for sponsors in the fur trade, which you can read about here:
One of the groups based in our buildings - Own-it - has hosted a lecture featuring a young fur trade designer and how she managed to manufacture her designs out of dead animal fur in China without threat of copy write infringement, or prosecution from a UK manufacturers who she paid late. You can read more about her work on the own-it link below. The East Meets West lecture co-incided with another LCF project, Creative Connexions, and their lectures such as "Making it Ethically in China"; you can see that we do not just undermine the ethic of
boycotting fur, but do so as a broader effort to undermine the ethics of a range of people.
Some of our work is done in conjunction with other agencies. In
the words of Ed Gillespie at Futerra Communications [footnote 1],
ethical messages have to be about "agency", or what to do,
"infrastructure", or how to do it, and "Social factors: We are communal,
communicative animals at heart and what other people are doing around
us really matters. There are multiple unconscious, subconscious and
intuitive influences that affect our behaviours all the time. We
instinctively mirror and echo the behaviour of others – what
psychologists call 'social proof'."
Other agencies with overlapping staff or buildings are Own-it,
an agency offering designers help with IP, Centre for Sustainable
Fashion, which among other things offers admin. support (possibly public
funded) to the All Party Group on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion.
A broader grouping is based at Rich Mix in London, and formally made up
of two companies, Ethical Fashion Consultancy Ltd and Ethical Fashion
Forum Ltd. You can read their lists of directors on Duedil.com [footnote
3]. The Ethical Fashion Forum web site lists Centre for Sustainable
Fashion among its partners' pool (alongside Futerra Communications), and
staff of Centre for Sustainable Fashion have organised government
grants for projects managed by Ethical Fashion Forum. The forum (which
is a web forum, not a democratic organisation) is often quoted in the
media and so presumably has helped exclude more clear and less sanitised
ethics from being reported. Another partner agency of Ethical Fashion
Forum is Estethica at London Fashion Week, which has helped get Chinese
Leather shoes reported as "ethical". Estethica and London Fashion Week
are connected to a fashion colleges council, of which London College of
Fashion plays a part.
It is hard to comment clearly on exactly who uses what money to
influence reporting and production of fur products, given the network of
agency names and people involved, some of them spending specific pieces
of government grant money, possibly paid separately from the Higher
Education Funding Council or Defra, and some of them presumably working
on London College of Fashion salaries or using offices in the buildings.
We also influence other colleges through Centre for Sustainability in
Fashion by writing course materials and text books.[footnote 4]
I will attempt to illustrate the position with an example of a
broad group of people, who appear influential, and who's position can be
manipulated and made to appear disinterested in fur and animal cruelty,
or UK manufacturing, or the need for a welfare state in Bangladesh, or
democracy in China.
One of our staff have "been instrumental in setting up an All
Party Parliamentary Group in the UK focusing on addressing issues
related to sustainability and ethics in fashion", according to our web
site.
The All Party Group has one member from the Lords who refused to
wear an fur-topped robe and mentioned People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals in her speeches [footnote 5]. There is no way that the chair
of the committee could be unaware or unable to report on other ethics.
She chooses not to. Her speeches suggest quite another consensus - the
"social proof" mentioned by Futerra Communications (who happen to be
members of Ethical Fashion Forum's partners' list) - in her speech a few
weeks later to the Ethical Fashion Forum.
You can read excepts from her opening speech to a lords debate here, with annotations:
https://www.facebook.com/planB4fashion/p...
(titled "you are invited to a master class in fashion PR]. You can read
another of her speeches, given a few months later to a trade
association, below and see how well she did at avoiding specific ethical
choices like the use of fur.
I hope this gives you some background to London College of Fashion's ethical position on fur.
As for your specific questions
"Do you have an ethical policy in place? If yes, can be accessible?"
There will be a corporate document somewhere on ethics but we
probably photocopied one from our bank and anyway it would have to take
the detailed points above into account, so it won't say anything much.
"Do your college use fur on your courses? If yes, would you please state of which animals?"
It depends who is willing to sponsor us. Also, our courses have bad
reviews and a relatively small amount of staff support, so I imagine
that students drop-out. If the previous crop of students left-over some
fur, all the better.
"Do you use products not tested on animals on your "cosmetics" courses?"
That's a technical question and, although we are a technical
college, we don't have a track record of detail; we closed most of our
technical courses down and assume that the cosmetics are made in China
where they can write what they like on the label without anyone finding
them out.
If you have any other questions about the work of London College
of Fashion or its courses, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Footnote 2: "Since meeting in 2009, the CSF and Baroness Young
quickly established a rapport of shared goals and energy focusing on the
promotion of ethical fashion at a parliamentary level. The All Party
Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Ethical Fashion held its preliminary
meeting in 2009 and we were proud to be announced as the secretariat. We
will continue to develop activities for the APPG in 2010, bringing
together a mix of industry innovators and politicians to further debate
the issues."
Footnote 4: "We have worked with the Higher Education Academy
since 2008, when we were commissioned to research and write the report
Volume 4.0: Green Collar Graduates for the Fashion Industry. We are
currently delivering a further project for the HEA for Art, Design and
Media under the theme of education for sustainable development, working
with three undergraduate courses at London College of Fashion to develop
toolkits for teaching sustainability in fashion."
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=...
- There was another debate on ethical fashion in the lords, before
their lordships were coached in what to say and it was more interesting.
Lord Suger suggested incubator factories set-up in empty space with an
emphasis on training.
Baroness young mentioned fur!
I haven't worked-out how to find-out whether government
ministers and ministries did anything in response to any of the
speeches.
This
is a blog that about the fashion punditry industry, including London
College of Fashion's role in a thing called Graduate Fashion Week which
charges shopkeepers to attend rather than inviting them to attend. So
quite likely, a LCF student would be permitted or encouraged to use fur,
but not find any punters to sell it to after graduating. Graduate
Fashion Week combines some degree show work from these colleges,
although I know deMontford Uni also runs its own in Leicester and the
others may have their own as well.
Arts University College at Bournemouth
Bath Spa University
Birmingham City University
Bradford College
Carmartthenshire College
Cleveland College of Art and Design
Colchester School of Art
De Montfort University
Edinburgh College of Art
EsMod Berlin
Istituto Marangoni
Kingston University
Limerick School of Art and Design
Leeds College of Art
Liverpool John Moores University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Middlesex University
Northbrooke College Sussex
Northampton University
Northumbria University
Norwich University of the Arts
Nottingham Trent University - School of Art
Plymouth College of Art
Ravensbourne
Southampton Solent University
University of Sunderland
University for the Creative Arts, Epsom
University of Central Lancashire
University of Derby
University of East London
University of Huddersfiled
University of Leeds
University of Lincoln
University of Salford
University for the Creative Arts, Rochester
University of Wales, Newport
University of West England
University of West London
University of Westminster
Wiltshire College Salisbury
Winchester School of Art
University of the Arts Grant to Promote Jobs in China
HEIF 3 Competition Stage 2 Application Form Creative Capital – World City
Part A The case for the project
Creative Capital – World City will provide the specialist business, economic, technical, creative and cultural expertise required to support the UK creative industries expansion into key world markets. The partner universities, which are leaders in these complementary fields, together with the Centre for Creative Business, will deliver this through the Creative Industries Observatory in London and 5 international business hubs in China and India.
“Our economic future lies in high-value, knowledge intensive industries. Put simply, to make the UK the world’s creative hub”
In keeping with UK Government priorities (most recently expressed in the 2006 Budget) and regional policy for London, the purpose of this innovative project is to increase the competitive advantage of UK creative companies doing business, or wishing to do business in India and China, thereby developing the world market for the UK creative industries. Creative Capital – World City will directly support UK companies in identifying and siezing new opportunities, understanding the regional social, cultural, economic and business contexts, preparing their business plans and strategies, and identifying and successfully engaging in business development opportunities in these countries.
Building on proven and successful research and HEIF knowledge transfer (KT) activities e.g. Centre for Creative Business, Enterprise Centre for the Creative Arts and Own IT (Creative London IP advisory service), a new London based centre for expert knowledge in the creative industries will be established. The project will also work with UK-wide creative companies and key creative networks to research creative activity / opportunities and succesfully penetrate and expand demand in the target markets through dedicated staff at five Creative Business Centres overseas. The essence of knowledge transfer in this international context relies upon creating and supporting unique partnerships and collaboration etc to enable particular projects (such as fashion or design projects) to be accomplished. Staff at the Centres will be a critical resource to assist creative companies in sustaining key business relationships in India and China. The project will provide:
The Creative Industries Observatory (CIO), a facility for UK creative businesses which will gather, interpret and deliver high quality relevant intelligence on the target markets and Creative Industry trends in the UK, China and India
5 internationally located business Creative Business Centres - hubs – operated by dedicated business development specialists through which opportunity/ creative business activity and market intelligence can be channelled between Chinese, Indian and London/UK businesses
Networking opportunities in the emerging markets
Liaison with local knowledge and expertise in the target markets
New, carefully targeted, KT activities to assist international development of creative businesses and, through structured training, build their confidence to engage with Indian and Chinese businesses
Support to business in exploiting new creative business opportunities in these emerging markets
Additional direct foreign investment into London and the UK Development of 3rd stream income from KT related to the creative industries for a range of UK HEIs
(A i) Description of the Innovative nature of the project
The innovative nature of the project lies in
Its international ambition i.e. the distinctive UK - China - India dimension which responds to ambitious UK government plans for the creative industries
Its key role for the UK economy in establishing a Creative Industries Observatory, the centre of expert knowledge for understanding and supporting UK creative companies either already engaged in or wishing to enter the emerging markets of China and India
The establishment of international Creative Industries benchmarks based on CIO data
The development of international business/knowledge transfer hubs, the Creative Business Centres
Combining leading edge technology, economic and international studies and applied research with world class creative art and design and business management
A strategic and innovative alliance with highly appropriate corporate partners, HEIs and their networks
The use of international HEI partners with established geographical presence and contact networks in the target regions which will be of immediate help to the project
The innovative use of existing KT networks in London/UK including Centres for Knowledge Exchange networks
Targeting of international KT for the creative industries, with a specific focus on strategic areas of opportunity for UK plc such as digital media and design e.g. Fashion, communications and product.
(A ii) Articulation of need
There are numerous statistics confirming the importance of the creative industries to the UK economy and the need for them to internationalise:
In 2001, creative industries accounted for 8.2% of UK GDP and contributed £54.8 billion to UK Gross Value Added, £112 billion in annual revenue and £11.5 billion in exports.
From 1997-2001 UK creative industries grew by an average of 8% per annum, compared to an average of 2.6% for the whole of the economy.
Creative industries contribute £21 billion to London’s output, a considerable amount juxtaposed with the City’s £35 billion. In terms of jobs growth creative industries are London’s most important sector
From 1997-2002, employment in the UK’s creative industries grew at three times the rate of the economy as a whole. In June 2003 creative employment totalled 1.9m jobs.
The global market value of the creative industries has increased from $831 billion in 2000 to $1.3 trillion in 2005; more than 7% of global GDP
These are vital statistics that need to be kept up to date. The Creative Industries Observatory will liaise with DCMS and other agencies to design and develop an effective programme of ongoing statistical data research.
H.M. Government, via the DCMS and other departments/ agencies, has targeted the creative industries as an important economic sector for UK plc. The London Development Agency has taken a strong lead in setting the regional economic agenda for London with respect to the creative industries. Through its Creative London agency, it has delivered crucial intervention and support to London-based creative businesses.
At the London Business School in November 2005 Creative Industries Minister James Purnell announced the Creative Economy Programme. This seven-step programme will ensure that cultural institutions, policy makers and funding organisations work together to support the growth and productivity of the creative industries. Concurrently the DCMS announced a new measure to promote UK creativity globally. DCMS and UK Trade & Investment, with other partners in government, are supporting the work of three industry led export groups helping to develop the Government strategy for the export of goods and services from the Creative Industries sector:
● Creative Exports Group (CEG) ● Performing Arts International Development (PAID) ● Design Partners
In February 2006 the Creative Industries Minister announced that 7 experts have been appointed to lead the Creative Economy Programme and its drive to make Britain the world’s creative hub
Government recognises the tremendous growth in importance of trade with India and China to the UK, e.g. UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) pump primed by £10M of UK government funding which was announced by the Prime Minister in November 2005, the agreement to grant 1,000 working visas a year for Chinese graduates to gain work experience in the UK, the proposed Phase 2 of the Prime Minister’s Initiative to support HEI international activities (April 2006) and the expansion of the Scholarships for Excellence programme - aimed at building links between Chinese business community and UK HE – to all of which University of the Arts London (UAL) will contribute.
A prime source of help for UK companies to improve their international trade is the government agency UK Trade and Investment. Following a recent announcement by Gordon Brown, ‘a revamped UK Trade and Investment will set new targets for expanding trade with China and India and other emerging economies’.
The issue for UK HEIs and for the creative industries, typified by small business, is how do they engage with these international opportunities in a realistic and effective way?
The Creative Capital – World City project has been designed to give direct support to the Government’s Creative Economy Programme. It will work with the DCMS/ UKTI and other agencies to deliver the Government strategy for the export of goods and services from the Creative Industries sector. Creative industries companies will benefit through specialist KT support from universities with relevant expertise, offered in liaison with UKTI support.
London/ UK creative businesses intending to begin trading in India/China need help. There is a key need in China and India to ensure their international developments are sustainably structured for the long-term. They need market intelligence, local contacts, access to Indian and Chinese business networks, showcasing, B2B introductions and local knowledge. They also need assistance with understanding and addressing cultural requirements and specific training in how to best exploit international business opportunities. Partner HEIs need to seize the opportunity for growing 3rd stream income for KT services involving UK creative exports, the demand for which is high in India and China.
“The project looks exceptional and will make a major contribution to the innovation challenge that the UK faces”. Jonathan Kestenbaum CEO of NESTA
“This is a strategically important project for London which will provide clear opportunities to work collaboratively in various ways including staging international events showcasing UK creativity, e.g. internationalising the London Design Festival and the London Film Festival” Tom Campbell - Creative London - a committed delivery partner that welcomes the alignment of the project objectives and intentions with its own creative industries internationalisation programme.
Luke Johnson Chairman of C4 TV has given the project his support. Andrew Summers chairman of Design Partners, the government body (supported by UK Trade & Investment and DCMS) promoting international trade and investment for UK design businesses supports the project and is keen to work with it.
“British Design Innovation very much welcomes it and are keen to loan any support we can and get directly involved where appropriate”. Maxine Horn CEO of British Design Innovation, (which has 4,500 commercial design practices registered with it - representing 95% of the UK commercial design market).
"Creative Capital - World City is an important and timely initiative which is likely to provide invaluable support and intelligence to creative companies looking to do business in China and India”.
Frances Sorrell - The Sorrell Foundation"
The requested £5 million of HEIF 3 funding is crucial to the project. Given their teaching, research and other third stream commitments, the partner HEIs would not be able to undertake the Creative Capital –World City project without this necessary additional funding.
(A iii) Planned impact on UK’s economy and society
This project will not lead to British creativity fuelling Indian/Chinese market ascendancy. It will enable UK companies to compete effectively with other first world players by embedding London/UK creative expertise in business development opportunities in India/China. Leveraging the existing collaborative projects and established networks of the partners, the project will:-
(B i) Key Project Partners
The core partnership is strategically complementary and has a track record of designing, managing and delivering on major publicly funded projects including large--scale research projects and knowledge transfer under HEIF 2. It brings together
The partnership features universities recognised as leading UK institutions with 5/5*research grades, which through well established networks are already very active internationally in student recruitment, course delivery and knowledge transfer. The partners are well known to each other, have very good working relationships and share the ‘big picture’ with respect to their strategic international development. Together they provide a highly competent force, equipped with creative industry related art, design, technical, technological, political, cultural, social, economic and business management expertise to assist UK creative businesses to succeed in India and China. The high quality knowledge transfer, dissemination and business support networks that the partners are already engaged in will be leveraged to drive further business involvement for ‘Creative Cities. These same networks are also adept at monitoring and analysing user involvement to ensure that the project delivers required outcomes. The project has the support of major creative industry organisations, creative clusters and creative companies in each target area.
The project is based at University of the Arts London, the UK University most closely linked to those creative industries. UAL plays a vital role in serving the knowledge transfer needs of the creative industries in London and the UK, in the arts (visual and performing), design and communications. It already provides a wide range of excellent creative industry focused K T services to London/ UK including, Innovation Centre, Design Laboratory, Centre for Fashion Enterprise, Fashion Business Resource Studio, CoVE Retail, CoVE Fashion, Own It Intellectual Property Advice Service (in partnership with Creative London), Artquest, The Intelligent Media Initiative. Exchange - London’s creative Centre for Knowledge Exchange, IP commercialisation (e.g. licensing, start-up and spin-out companies – via UAL Ventures ltd), consultancy and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.
In collaboration with London Business School, University of the Arts London operates a joint HEIF 2 funded venture - the Centre for Creative Business tasked with driving innovative new forms of UK-based creative business out of LBS and UAL MBA/ MA programmes through its New Creative Ventures programme and assists existing creative businesses to grow significantly through its Building the Creative Ventures programme. CCB has been a major success story. It is often cited by the Creative Industries Minister James Purnell as an excellent example of what can be done when two leading HEIs with strongly complementary disciplines come together.
(B ii) Indicative contribution from each HEFCE funded partner
Partner Relevant Expertise Contribution
King’s College London Evidence Network; School of Social Science and Public Policy; Cities Group;
School of Humanities;
Risk Management Centre Expertise in evidence based policy methodology
Economic impact techniques
London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise (HEIF 2 funded project)
International, interdisciplinary research using spatial techniques to investigate cultural and economic development.
School of African & Asian Studies Centre for South Asian Studies; Centre for Contemporary China Institute; SOAS Language Centre; SOAS Interface Interdisciplinary approach to understanding the context and dynamics of the target markets
Language and cultural programmes for business to develop skills in Chinese and South Asian languages
London Business School Aditya V Birla Centre
Innovation Centre
Digital Transformations
Mutually beneficial academic exchange between Indian business and the global business community
Macro and micro knowledge of the digital technology industry and access to businesses
Social and economic impact of information and communication technology at macro and micro levels
Centre for Creative Business Driving innovative new forms of creative business; assisting existing creative businesses to grow significantly. Management development programmes
- Potential internationalisation action.
Database of 5,000 creative businesses
Track record of delivering high profile events
Through the combination of its complementary skills and knowledge the partnership will provide:
Guidance on the data collection methodologies and interpretation methods for the Observatory (KCL)
Insights into the cultural, political, and economic dynamics of the target countries and our Creative Business Centres within them (KCL/ SOAS)
Expertise in the delivery of specific aspects of activity such as languages/learning advice, business strategy, investment appraisal and risk appraisal (KCL/ SOAS)
Access to the best possible core data on UK creative businesses and routes for the project to communicate with them. (CCB)
First rate executive education specifically relevant to the creative industries in the UK and the target markets (LBS/ UAL)
Collection of and access to existing published and unpublished reports, and mapping exercises (UAL/ LBS/ CCB)
Each of the partners brings to the project considerable experience in the management and successful delivery of major publicly funded projects such as UAL’s £5m CETL and Screen Academy projects, King’s London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise and LBS Centre for Scientific Enterprise Ltd.
(B iii) Project Management Arrangements
The University of the Arts London as the Lead Partner will be the accountable body. A Project Director will be appointed to manage the overall project and will travel to the five Creative Business Centres to ensure that the deliverables are achieved. The job descriptions and person specifications for both the Project and Observatory Director posts will reflect the need for these staff to have demonstrable experience in an international context. A Management Board will direct the strategic management of the project. A leading representative of the Creative Industries will chair the Board. It will have membership from each of the partners, employers and the project team. Invited Observers e.g. Mayor of London’s Office, UK Trade and Industry, OST, and liaison with advisory bodies in the priority sub sectors will further ensure full employer engagement.
Part C Detailed Business Plan
(C i) Activities 2006-08 and beyond
This innovative and necessary project has three inter-related components: the Project Management Centre, the Creative Industries Observatory and five Creative Business Centres in China and India.
This is not intended to be a short-term project. The initial project lifespan funded by HEIF 3 will be extended into future years with income generated through the provision of KT activities and services both in London/UK but primarily in the target markets in China and India. To lay an effective foundation for this project it is anticipated that a pre-project preparation, consultation and staff recruitment period will be required. We therefore suggest that the official project start date/public launch might reasonably be deferred to late 2006 as the project is phased in.
Working with the enthusiastic support of key local agencies including Creative London and London First the project will establish the Creative Industry Observatory in London and five international business hubs (Creative Business Centres) located in China and India (a timeline for the project appears below in Section C vi). The project will work with Business Links for London, London Chamber of Commerce and other creative industry business networks in London and the UK, to reach the largest possible number of creative businesses. The project also has the direct support of numerous delivery partner companies including large corporates such as Deloitte that are already well established and active in China and India. Through close liaison it will complement and enhance the work of UKTI (noting the particular emphasis that UKTI is now expected to apply to developing trade activity with China and India), British Council, Creative London, the proposed National Centre for Design and Creativity (Cox Report recommendation) and the Mayor’s Office/Think London operation in Beijing. The operation of these elements of the project will be coordinated through the Project Management Centre at the University of the Arts London.
(C ii) Project Management Centre
The Project Management Centre will provide the financial and administrative management for the project. The Project Director will coordinate and manage the work of the Business Development Managers (BDMs) in the UK and at the Creative Business Centres in China and India and will liaise closely with the Director of the Creative Industries Observatory. UK based BDMs will work with creative industry networks, companies and agencies. Partner based BDMs will also be tasked with the internal ‘selling’ of the project in order to ensure that partners benefit fully from the project and contribute to the project in terms of the international knowledge transfer opportunities through the Centres and the provision of specialist consultancy services through the Creative Industry Observatory.
(C iii) The Creative Industry Observatory
Based at UAL’s: London College of Communication, the Creative Industry Observatory will be developed as an authoritative information, observation and dissemination resource. Staffed by specialist information managers, analysts and researchers the Observatory will:
Collect and provide datasets on e.g. London and UK Creative Industries activity; creative businesses in UK China and India and new creative business opportunities.
Commission research to plug gaps in baseline creative industries subsectoral analysis/market analysis and regulatory frameworks
Produce publications/journal/information updates
Organise and present conferences/seminars/workshops
Carry out brokerage/introductions between creative industry companies through its events programme
Additionally the Observatory will also accept commissions from agencies e.g. DCMS and DTI, to research, provide and maintain urgently needed fresh creative industries data e.g. provide a London and national creative industries subsectoral primary baseline data analysis/ tracking exercise. It is expected that this will aid project sustainability.
(C iv) The International Creative Business Centres
The project will develop Creative Business Centres in:
China: · Beijing · Hong Kong · Shanghai India: · Mumbai · New Delhi
The five Centres will not be “cold starts”, but will be cost effective arrangements that build on existing agency, university and corporate partnerships and networks e.g. with the Beijing Design Centre and Tsinghua University. This will enable an immediate project presence in the target markets, supported locally through links with our partner Universities in China and India, which will be ready to take advantage of known business prospects. Activity at Centres in each location will be quickly ramped up through these proven operational relationships.
Each of the Creative Business Centres will have a physical presence, staffed by dedicated business development specialists and co-located in prime positions typically within delivery partner organisations. Business development staff at the Centres will proactively seek, generate and orchestrate new business opportunity, broker relationships between Chinese, Indian and UK companies and provide technical, cultural and ‘trouble shooting’ support. The Centres will provide a locus for further developing influential networks in the target markets, for market research and data gathering, for channelling market intelligence back to the UK. All Centres will be equipped with appropriate technology to enable fast reliable continuous contact including video conferencing between staff at each Centre, the Creative Industries Observatory and the project management centre. Where local partnerships are unable to provide suitable venues, appropriate commercial premises will be hired for the staging of events. The volume of KT and business activity driven by each Centre will be monitored and should any of these be performing at a lower level than expected, a virtual Centre established in agency premises may replace the physical presence.
(C v) Key outcomes and deliverables of the project will be:
The establishment of the Creative Industry Observatory and its subsequent operation as an exemplar of sector focused KT excellence; as a source of specialist expert knowledge, leading to new joint ventures and commercial agreements between London/UK companies and those in China and India . It will provide valuable contextualised intelligence to and from the Creative Business Centre, UKTI and other agencies, to UK businesses via on-line and other media/events
The establishment of 5 International Creative Business Centre networks to support knowledge transfer activity in stated areas
Estimated £2.0m p.a. revenue potential from international knowledge transfer activities by July 2008
12-15 international business development staff appointed across the network
5 databases of international contacts
15 regionally focused (i.e. 3 per Centre) marketing and promotional events per year
1500 creative industries businesses briefed through 6 - 10 London based strategic business opportunity seminars during the project
The Creative Capital – World City website
Regular specialist on-line e-briefings on India/China opportunities
On-line multi media/interactive specialist support for new business development
100 international business-to-business introductions brokered
10 international business opportunity focused ‘grow your creative business’ events for London based creative industry companies and 10 similar events delivered locally for Indian and Chinese creative companies which will showcase London/UK creativity
‘International Knowledge Transfer Partnerships’ and ‘mini-KTPs’ (will be developed based on experience of graduate placement in international locations) that will be sponsored by Indian and Chinese companies
(C vi) Independent Evaluation Arrangements
Evaluation will be a constant theme/presence throughout the project. The individual contributions of each partner will be subject to several levels of quality control and evaluation, the first line of which will be the existing quality control procedures of each partner. The project management team will internally evaluate each significant project event and interaction in line with customer care best practice – reporting biannually to the Board. Impact assessments will be made of all operational aspects of the project.
Separate to these measures there will be external evaluation at initiation, during and on completion of the project. This will be carried out by independent external specialist evaluation consultants who will be appointed to the project following a selection process. A budget element has been earmarked for this, and potential sources, e.g. University of Glasgow Cultural Policy Group and Innovation Partners Ltd, have already been approached.
(C vii) Dissemination of Project Results
A comprehensive dissemination strategy will be agreed with the Management Board. The principle means of dissemination – not only of results but of process and progress – is intended to be the project website and links to the websites of partners including London First and Creative London. It is also intended that the project will also be featured in creative industries publications and those of the Mayor’s Office and LDA. The Observatory will launch the Creative Industries Journal as the authoritative refereed commentary on the creative industries in the UK, which will also disseminate data/findings from the project. The importance of disseminating information about the project and its impact, to business organisations, trade and professional associations; the HE Sector; UK government agencies; knowledge transfer networks other relevant CKEs in London and the UK and most importantly of similar bodies in China and India is recognised. There will be publications emanating from the project as well as targeted seminars and events targeted both at specific creative sub-sectors, broader business and the broad Creative Industries. Reference will be made to HEIF/HEFCE and DTI-OST throughout the dissemination process.
(C viii) Exit Strategy and Sustainability
This is an ambitiuous venture, with sustainability as an achievable objective. It is envisaged that significant income will be generated from the proposed activities, but this may not be fully in place within two years.
The initial project lifespan funded by HEIF 3 will be extended into future years with income generated through the provision of high quality knowledge transfer activities and services both in London/UK but primarily in the target markets. The first two years will feature an awareness raising campaign as the partnership builds the Creative Business Centre brand recognition at the initial locations. It will also further business partnerships and investment through which the brand and thus the centres concept can be extended to more geographical areas. The project will build a new self-sustaining business model, which will continue to grow in line with the anticipated growth of the Chinese and Indian markets for the creative industries.
It is expected that there will be significant opportunities for co-investment with Chinese and Indian partners, which will defray a large part of the direct operational costs to the partners in future years. The business model also anticipates the possibility of co-developing the Centres as collaborative businesses drawing in more UK creative companies, as the market for creativity in China and India extends to many other cities. This will give the partnership a much wider engagement with the Chinese and Indian marketplace, greatly increasing the potential returns to London/ UK creative businesses, to associated Chinese and Indian companies, and to the HEI partners as the demand for their knowledge transfer services grows. Revenue (in part potentially royalty payments) from this will feed back to the project to support the continued marketing and management of the business. The CIO will also actively seek to generate income through commissions and events. If insufficient progress towards some areas of self-sufficiency has been made two years from the start date, the project could be scaled back (e.g. some of the Creative Business Centres could become virtual centres to a level that can be sustained by the income generated from them) without loss of its overall thrust.
HEFCE/OST are being asked to provide essential start up funds to enable infrastructure development, cover expected start up costs and provide a stable platform for the first two years on which a sustainable operation can be built. Our belief in our ability to achieve sustainability is supported by the way in which the partners have over recent years been developing successful overseas recruitment and consultancy businesses in the target regions.
(C ix) Key Risk Factors
A strong partnership has been put together that has good experience of working successfully overseas. The potential pitfalls and challenges are largely known and many have been encountered and effectively dealt with in the past. However, this does not mean that the partnership is complacent about risk. As part of the business plan, a fuller assessment and treatment of risk will be undertaken with King’s College London’s Risk Strategy Group. A risk management strategy will subsequently be devised. Some indicative risks have been set out below.
Indicative Risk Rating Action
Unable to recruit appropriate staff or Low/ Medium Phase these international activities slightly
premises in China/India slower than in timeline
Partners unable to agree on share/ Low/ Medium Board to develop formal partnership agreements
distribution of income/benefit
Lack of KT business opportunities in Low/ Medium Vigorous campaign in target markets
China and India with UKTI and delivery partners in target markets
Income does not grow sufficiently Medium Scale back Hub/CIO activity to sustainable level
to fund Year 3 operation recast some centres as virtual centres
Seek co-investment/ merger with local partners
Too many CI sub sectors too early. Medium Focus on key selected areas initially
Slow bureaucracy in both countries Medium/ High Local partners well used to this will advise/ guide
Financial export restrictions/guarantees Medium Chinese income held in China and used to offset partner
(mainly China) costs on other (e.g. recruitment) operations.
Absence of experience of international High Careful screening/selection of business partners,
business standards use of strong contracts, particularly IPR
but recognise that even so, risk remains
The project represents a novel HEIF/business model but the experience of the partners in developing international operations and in delivering on HEIF/ third stream developments and other major collaborative projects reduces the risk associated with it
(C x) Finances