If you’re thinking your future could be in the creative, culture or sport sectors, read on! This article, written by Jamie Weetman, has information about all the pathways that might be an option for you, as well as information on the jobs and careers within these sectors. Plus, pick up some useful tips about how you can forge a career for yourself and who could help you along the road to get there.

Introducing the Creative, Culture and Sport sector

Greater Manchester has a strong history of creative industries, cultural developments, and sporting achievements. An estimated 37,000-person workforce make up the combined Creative, Culture, and Sport sector, and a large part of the GM economy is based around this sector. As well as income, it brings tourists/visitors from home and overseas, offering employment opportunities for many people. The central cluster, which is located in Manchester and Salford, is planning to create 90,000 new jobs in digital/creative/media and professional services with viable connections to universities. There are overlaps with the digital sector where GM has employers in these sectors like BBC and some that work at MediaCity, a mixed-use property development operating on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford.

The workforce in Creative, Culture, and Sport workplaces is younger than most, and workers are more likely to be self-employed. Poor perceptions of the sector create challenges in attracting candidates. The sector is unfortunately known for lengthy hours and low pay. Sports and physical activity occupations have a higher proportion of small employers and self-employed workers. Job flexibility is a common characteristic, which is an appealing feature to the sector, with many roles being part-time. While part-time work arrangements can be particularly striking to those seeking flexibility, such as students, the associated lower earnings may make it more difficult to keep these workers on over time.

It is always important to have a plan for your future with alternative options; if any of these three topics interest you, read on to learn more about them and pick up tips to forge yourself a career! It is always important to have a plan for your future with backup options if your first goal goes awry.

Now, on with the show!

Creative

This type of job has always interested someone like me who enjoys building and making art, but I didn’t know about every job under this sector of work…

One job in the creative industry is Digital Marketer. The job description of a digital marketer is promoting brands, products and services through social media, websites and apps. This role also includes everything from creating content and graphics, to managing advertising and campaigns. The salary ranges between £20,000 for new workers and £50,000 for long-time employees. The working environment for the job is either the office or hybrid (office & home-working). The working hours range from 37-39 a week. And the opportunities include going on to specialise in mobile or video marketing, becoming a senior digital marketing officer or head of online marketing, work as a freelance digital marketing consultant, or move into areas like advertising, sales, or public relations.

Culture

Initially, I assumed the jobs under this sector would just be related to exploring the way societies differentiate from one another, but upon looking into it more, I’ve found a few more trades that are associated with culture…

One job in cultural developments is Head of Fundraising & Corporate Partnerships. There are several roles linked to this particular job, including things like:

• spreading news to gain funds that could potentially be to support a charity or to help set up a business
• the responsibility for developing and implementing strategies
• managing new and existing relationships with corporate partners to support an organisation’s vision/mission.

The salary and benefits will entirely depend on who you are working for. This could be a company you operate under, or you’re the head of that organisation, or you are just independent. The same goes for working hours, as it will depend if you are an employee or work alone and therefore how much time and effort you put in during the day. This seems like it might be a cool occupation because it can open up new friendships, as well as competition to win the partnerships.

Another job involving culture is becoming an Archivist. An archivist is a data professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, and provides access to records or archives determined to have long-term value. It may sound quite tedious, but actually if you are interested in historical events and remnants of long-gone eras, these are the people that bring you more untold events and lost relics, you could even become well-regarded if you helped recover the antique intel. Think of it as a less-dangerous Indiana Jones mission. The records maintained by an archivist can consist of a variety of forms, including letters, diaries, logs, government documents, digital files, government documents, or other physical objects. Archivists are recruited by the local or central government, specialist and national agencies (e.g. the Public Record Office and British Library), Universities or charities, but of course it is your choice to become one in the first place if that’s what floats your boat. Other jobs linked to culture include Artistic Director, Family Service Manager, and Museum worker, etc.

You could find out more about these other jobs by clicking on the links below:

• Read Greater Manchester’s Strategy for Culture and Creativity
• Explore the archivist career on the National Careers Service

A second job that falls under the sector of sport is Coaching. Coaching can apply to pretty much every sport and can be known by several different names: teacher, instructor, professional, etc. To become a coach for any sport, it is important that you have at least one of the following: a university and/or college course, an apprenticeship, or working towards this role. At university, you can take a foundation degree, higher national diploma or degree in sports coaching, exercise science, studies, and PE. You’ll usually need: 1 or 2 A-Levels for a foundation degree or higher national diploma, or 2 to 3 A levels for a degree. The key skills and requirements that make a good sports coach include leadership, patience, motivation and organisation. The salary for the job varies depending on which sport you instruct for. For example, the salary per year for a football coach is usually around £28,802, whilst the salary for a swimming coach is even higher at £33,488. Other jobs that are part of the sports sector include Vehicle Engineering, health trainers, lifeguards, and sports scientists.

You can find out more about these other jobs by clicking on the links below:

• Explore the sports and leisure sector on the National Careers Service
• Read more about career pathways in sport on the UK Sport website
• Find out about careers in sport with the dedicated Careers in Sport website

Find out more

Use the below links to find out more information on the Creative, Culture and Sport sectors plus much more!

• To explore careers and sectors important in Greater Manchester, check out GMACS
• To look further at specific job roles and what they entail, use the National Careers Service
• To start exploring your training and career possibilities, or get help working out your options, check out the Skills for Careers website