Redefining Arts Learning to Include Workforce Readiness
This month, we’ll dive into our next strategy for expanding arts education across the region: Creative Career Pathways for Youth, which helps prepare young people ages 14-24 to contribute to LA County’s robust economy. The arts teach us how to communicate, collaborate, problem solve, re-imagine, and innovate – all skills needed for success in the 21st century workforce.
Two decades ago, when the Board of Supervisors adopted the initial Arts for All: Los Angeles County Regional Blueprint for Arts Education, our leaders acknowledged the importance of arts education in preparing a “creative and competitive workforce to meet the economic opportunities of the present and future.” Since then, arts education has shifted from “a nice to have” to “a must have.” The 2022 Otis Report on the Creative Economy cites California as an economic engine fueling over 1.3 million jobs in the creative economy, with the Los Angeles region serving as home to more than 437,000 of these salaried employees.
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Our aim is to reduce barriers to access and change perceptions about creative careers so that all youth, even those with limited awareness of opportunities within the creative industries, know about and are able to successfully compete for jobs in the creative capital of the world. This key strategy is now embedded across four LA County policies calling for the expansion of pathways that lead young people into careers in the arts and creative industries.
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To support Arts Ed Collective partners in preparing young people for creative careers, the LA County Department of Arts and Culture:
Develops and shares tools and resources
Serves as a trusted connector and intermediary to leverage partnerships and collaboration
Contributes expertise on advisory committees, workgroups, and panels to help shape policy, build awareness, and provoke action
Places coaches in school districts to help identify opportunities for including career pathways in strategic plans for arts education
Provides matching grants to school districts to build or expand creative career pathways programs
Since the beginning, we have focused on supporting and connecting our partners in the field. But today, this work continues to grow and evolve – specifically in alignment with the new Regional Blueprint for Arts Education (Arts Ed Blueprint) that updates goals for building infrastructure, strengthening collaboration, and increasing public demand for arts education, both within and beyond the classroom.
We’ve made great progress since launching in 2002. But the success of this collective impact initiative continues to be driven by many partners rallying around a common and shared agenda.
Read more about what we and our partners have been up to, below.
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Creative Careers Online is a project of the Los Angeles County Arts Ed Collective, built by Gladeo, in partnership with Create CA and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture. This new career navigation tool inspires youth to discover, prepare for, and pursue careers in the arts and creative industries.
The online resource spotlights more than 50 creative careers and features interviews with diverse professionals who speak frankly about how to succeed in these fields. Best of all, young people can connect with local training and educational opportunities to help them confidently pursue their career goals. Help us spread the word: share creativecareers.gladeo.org with interested youth, educators, career counselors, teaching artists, or anyone who works with young people and may be looking for information about careers in the arts and creative industries.
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Creative Jobs in Higher Demand
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Last spring, KCET released a special Arts Education episode of their acclaimed Artbound documentary series. Commissioned by the Arts Ed Collective Funders Council and developed in collaboration with the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, Artbound: Arts Education makes the case for why arts education is so important for preparing our young people to contribute as part of a new, innovative workforce. Amir Whitaker, Senior Policy Counsel for the ACLU of Southern California, notes the demand for creative industries is on the rise.
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State and Local Efforts to Prepare Youth for Creative Careers
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Intentional partnership-building has connected a dynamic network of key stakeholders. Members of CDE’s AME Coalition have formed the Entertainment Equity Alliance, a coalition of foundations, community-based organizations, government agencies, training partners, labor unions, national apprenticeship program sponsors, and workforce intermediaries who are committed to addressing systemic disparity in the entertainment industry. The Department of Arts and Culture’s role in the Entertainment Equity Alliance helps ensure LA-based organizations with robust creative career programs are included in efforts to develop and fund regional models of High Road Training Programs that serve as school-to-career pipelines.
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Here are some examples of this work in action, in both schools and in communities:
Arts Education
- Co-hosted this year by Burbank Unified School District, the California Department of Education’s 2022 AME Institute for educators will take place both virtually and in-person on June 20-23. Sign up now!
- Torrance Unified School District’s 2021-2026 strategic plan for arts education calls for establishing peer-to-peer coaching and new arts internships that will connect high school students to creative careers.
- Lawndale Elementary School District is using Advancement Grant matching funds to purchase professional lighting equipment and cameras so that Kindergarten through 5th grade students can build their own digital portfolios.
- Centinela Valley Union High School District's four AME career pathways engage high school students in real-world, industry-relevant experiences: the Technical Arts and Design Academy at Hawthorne High School is designing banners to promote positive school culture; Leuzinger High School's Multimedia Careers Academy is filming a documentary to highlight how their Environmental Careers Academy grows produce for the Culinary Careers Academy's cafe; and the Academy of Cinematic Arts at Lawndale High School is filming a play and completing OSHA certifications, while Commercial Music Pathway students prepare for the annual "Lawndale Palooza" event and intern at SYNC Library.
Career Exploration
- In March, students, parents, guardians, and educators filled the Inner City Arts campus for the Artistic Community Expo. They learned about the creative industries, listened in on a panel discussion filled with arts professionals, heard about the Work of Art program for high school sophomores and juniors (applications now available!), and made art!
- Career exploration includes exposure to professionals working in a community theater or local performance space. TeenTix LA is providing young people an affordable way to experience art across Los Angeles and see first-hand the many different jobs involved in producing these events.
- Better Youth, Venice Arts, and the LA Urban League have already posted upcoming opportunities on the new Creative Careers Online Newsfeed. We are pleased to be partnering with career navigation experts Gladeo to develop this tool.
Career Readiness
- Academix and MUSIC to the Ears Foundation are exposing young people to the world of DJing, music production, and media arts. Offerings include in-school and after-school programs, career training, and paid internships for young adults ages 14-24.
- Angels and Warriors is a year-long mentorship program offered by WACO Theater, in partnership with KIPP Academy, that is using art to facilitate personal development and growth for young people ages 14-18. The program pairs participants with a personal mentor to help them gain the clarity, discipline, and skill to achieve their career dreams..
Work-Based Learning
- Apprenticeship is not a new idea in the arts, but it is a new practice in the digital economy. Arts2Work has created the first federally-registered apprenticeship program in Media Arts + Creative Technologies. This means that unpaid internships should be a thing of the past. It means that there are opportunities for professional, on-the-job training, even if you have not attended college. And it means that the media industry can say yes to one-on-one mentorship and equitable, diverse workplaces.
- Compton Unified, Inglewood Unified, and Centinela Valley Union High School District will join 11 LAUSD schools in offering audio production as part of a California Department of Education’s AME Workforce Training Initiative pilot grant program, to launch a pre-apprenticeship/union training program with IATSE.
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