CHEAD, alongside other mission groups and 300 sector signatories, has written to the Chancellor asking her to reconsider the proposal to remove Level 7 levy funding.
Level 7 Apprenticeships are a progression pathway for future creative leaders. 48% of Level 7 apprentices who answered the DfE's Apprenticeship Evaluation in 2023 were first generation students , with one fifth living in the most deprived areas of the country.
Level 7 provides critical skills in leadership and specialist creative expertise that employers actually need. Level 7 fulfils the Government’s own Industrial Strategy priorities and, in particular for the Creative Industries, are a vital intervention promoting workforce development, diversity and inclusion.
The Creative Industries are a UK success story. Training and creative education feature heavily as key to the growth of the sector. The sector is mobilising in a monumental way to use apprenticeship provision as its primary source of CPD. With help from a £5.8 million investment in facilities from the OFS, Leicester Media School at De Montfort University has developed apprenticeships level 6 User Experience Professional and level 6 Broadcast Systems Engineer, as well as a level 7 VFX Supervisor standard.
Greenwich University has developed a Level 7 Creative Industries Production Management Apprenticeship. Teeside University has c50 apprentices on a Level 7 Curator apprenticeship. There are many more examples across Higher Education where innovative pathways to Level 7 creative leadership are being developed.
Defunding Level 7 now will stifle the opportunity for digital-first creative professionals to continue their upwards progression through ‘a well-designed apprenticeship system which could be transformative for the creative sector’ as outlined in the APPG for Creative Diversity report.