Students don't need to take creative subjects at school as they are already exposed to creative processes thanks to mobile phones, according to the author of a new government-commissioned report on the UK's creative sector.
TV executive Peter Bazalgette launched his Independent Review of the Creative Industries today, stating that the sector could generate a million new jobs by 2030.
But the report fails to make recommendations to address the declining numbers of students taking creative subjects ? a decline attributed to the introduction of the new English Baccalaureate (EBacc).
Many figures in the creative industries fear that the EBacc, which emphasises academic subjects such as maths and English, is leading to the marginalisation of creative subjects. This year saw a further five per cent drop in applications for art and design degrees. However Bazalgette said that most people in the creative industries didn't study creative subjects.
"You don't need to have a creative industries degree to work in the creative industries," he told Dezeen. "If you analyse the people in this room [at the launch of the report], the majority of them would have studied other things. What you need is a desire to create things."
When asked how schoolchildren could be inspired to enter professions such as architecture and design if they are not taught creative subjects at school, Bazalgette said: "They're totally exposed to the idea that you can create things because t...