Britain’s skills debate is shifting.
The apprenticeship system is being refocused, with greater emphasis on opportunities for young people and stronger prioritisation of technical skills such as AI, digital technology and engineering. That shift reflects a legitimate concern: ensuring the next generation has the capabilities needed for a rapidly changing economy.
But as policymakers refine the country’s skills strategy, there is a risk that one essential ingredient of innovation is overlooked.
Creativity.
While the Industrial Strategy rightly recognises the importance of the creative industries, creativity itself has far wider personal and economic value. It sits at the heart of almost all innovation. Technical expertise alone does not drive progress. Innovation grows from imagination, from the ability to see possibilities that do not yet exist.
Local Innovation
Recently, Leicester offered a timely reminder of this connection.
At the launch of Leicester Innovation Festival, leaders from business, education and the public sector came together to discuss how we grow new industries, create jobs and strengthen our regional economy. Days later, the city marked the opening of Canopy, a £14.6 million creative industries hub designed to support designers, digital start-ups and makers, and expected to generate around 250 local jobs.
Both moments highlight a simple truth: innovation does not appear from nowhere. It grows out of creativity.
Too often, we separate the two. Innovation is framed as the domain of laboratories, technology firms or boardrooms. Yet the habits that underpin it – curiosity, experimentation, imagination and the willingness to try something new – are the same habits cultivated through creative activity.
They are developed when someone plays a piano, designs a garment, sketches an idea or writes a script. Creativity is not an abstract quality; it is a skill, developed through practice And that skill matters far beyond the creative industries themselves.
Every moment of progress begins with someone imagining something that does not yet exist.
Yet while Britain celebrates its innovation economy, the value of creative education is increasingly questioned. That should give us pause.
Sustained by thousands
The UK’s creative industries are not a cultural luxury; they are one of the country’s most significant economic success stories. Contributing around £145 billion to the economy and supporting approximately 2.4 million jobs, they represent a substantial share of national output.
But headline figures can obscure how the sector actually works. Public perceptions often focus on high-profile success stories, film stars, musicians, celebrated designers. In reality, the sector is sustained by thousands of highly skilled graduates working across freelance roles, small enterprises and project-based careers.
Entry-level pay can be modest, even in industries that generate significant overall value. This reflects not a lack of worth in creative education, but the structure of the labour market itself, where value is often unevenly distributed and, at times, exploitative.
If salary becomes the sole measure of educational value, we risk misdiagnosing the problem. By that logic, we would also undervalue entrepreneurship, public service, charity work and cultural leadership, fields that do not always deliver immediate financial return, but are vital to society.
Creativity thrives on difference
Many of the people working in those roles begin their journeys in universities like DMU.
Community-focused institutions like my own educate students who are often the first in their families to enter higher education. They bring diverse perspectives, experiences and stories that shape the work they go on to create.
In a city like Leicester, one of the most diverse in Britain, those voices are particularly powerful.
Creativity thrives on difference. Some of the most compelling ideas emerge when people from different cultures and backgrounds collaborate. This diversity is one of the UK’s greatest competitive advantages, reflected in the global strength of its creative industries.
If we narrow access to the education that feeds those industries, we risk narrowing the creativity that sustains them.
Creativity gives skills meaning
This question of access is especially important as the government rethinks the role of apprenticeships within the wider skills system.
Recent reforms to the Growth and Skills Levy signal a shift towards supporting younger people entering the workforce, reducing funding which had formerly been used to support continuing professional development for existing employees. The introduction of new apprenticeship “units” – focused on areas such as artificial intelligence, welding, EV and solar installation – reflects a clear emphasis on technical capability.
These priorities are understandable. But the most transformative technologies do not succeed through engineering alone. They succeed when someone imagines how those technologies might reshape the way people live, communicate and create.
The world’s most successful digital products are not simply feats of engineering. They are exercises in design, storytelling and human insight.
Creativity is not the opposite of technical skill; it is what gives that skill meaning.
If we are serious about preparing young people for the future economy, creativity must sit alongside coding, engineering and data science in the skills conversation.
The creative industries themselves demonstrate how these capabilities intersect. Games studios bring together artists, writers and designers with programmers and engineers. Film production blends cutting-edge visual effects with storytelling and performance. Fashion integrates design with advanced materials and digital manufacturing.
Innovation happens where disciplines meet and universities play a vital role in bringing those disciplines together.
Not an optional extra
This matters not only nationally, but locally. In Leicester and Leicestershire, more than 98 per cent of businesses employ fewer than 50 people, with SMEs providing around 60 per cent of jobs. At DMU, we work closely with these businesses, fostering creativity, supporting innovation and developing talent.
Small businesses are often the most agile parts of the economy. They test ideas, collaborate and experiment. When they grow, the benefits extend across the wider region.
The opening of Canopy is a powerful signal of Leicester’s ambition. By investing in spaces where creative entrepreneurs can collaborate and grow, the city is backing one of the most dynamic sectors of the modern economy.
If Britain wants to remain a global creative powerhouse, it must nurture ideas wherever they emerge — including in communities that have historically had the least access to opportunity.
As we redesign the skills system, we should be ambitious about the capabilities we value.
Artificial intelligence and engineering will shape the future. But not without imagination, storytelling and design. Creativity is not an optional extra in our skills strategy; it is one of the foundations of innovation itself.
The question is whether Britain is prepared to sustain the talent pipeline that underpins one of its greatest economic strengths.
Because dismantling that pipeline would not be a correction. It would be an act of strategic self-harm.
