The educational drive within the Creative Industries, are on quite different levels in the Nordic countries.
While it seem to be veritably blooming in Sweden, where you’ll find different combinations including a certain amount of ‘upplevelseindustri’ at nearly every university or university college – we see a more modest pace in other countries. The general impressions are;
• The professional environments within the CI’s seem to be scattered and small
• There is a lack of common understanding and agreement upon terms and definitions
• The links between educations and the labour market are weak (this reflects the poor organization of branches within the CI’s)
• The CI’s seem to be central to innovation in bordering sectors like ICT, digital media, engineering and tourism and are often used as ‘enzymes’ or add-ons in educational initiatives. NICE conferencepaper education creativeindustries 03.pdf

It calls upon some reflections among decision and policy makers, whether those framework conditions are to be improved.

The many individual bottom-up activities could run the risks of being inefficient in relation to meet labour market and society’s demands - as well as to fall low in terms of quality, building on too little solid knowledge in terms of analysis and research.

On the other hand it lies to some extent in the concept of not only creativity, but also in the innovation theories, that we must experiment and be willing to take risks.

The answer lies in doing both:
We must increase the amount of evidence and solid knowledge in order to improve quality of policymaking, planning and development.

At the same time we must encourage experiments and new initiatives, observe them carefully and act upon the experience gained hereby.

It seem to be the multi-disciplinary cross-over initiatives that holds the biggest potential of promoting innovation.

Background
On a global scale, cultural or creative industries have shown significant growth rates over the past decades. You can find evidence at the World Bank Reports, with OECD, Unesco and in global companies reports.
Thus several countries have begun to identify the share of GPD, exports and employment, which is generated from branches, relating to culture, tourism, media and creative disciplines like architecture, design & fashion.
This have to some degree reflected in national policies and strategies in many European Countries with England as a forerunner and role-model since the 1980’s.
In the Nordic territory the governments have begun to adopt terms like ‘experience industry or economy’, ‘creative and cultural economy’ or ‘leisure and tourism industry’, recognizing the growing impact of the sectors.

Penetration in the educational systems: two barriers
Though the general acceptance on governmental level is increasing rapidly, it seems like the creative industries or experience economy for some time has been upheld at the gates of academia.
An important reason for this is the tradition of self-governance in Universities. The institutes, their researchers and management must find the scientific base adequate when new areas are to be adopted and developed into offers in the institutions..There must be evidence enough, both qualitatively and in terms of quantity of reports, thesis etc, if we are to establish bachelors and masters, seems to be the logic.
And here it seems like the unclear picture , created by different terms and descriptions of what we are talking about and counting in statistics, makes it easier to ignore the creative industries in the educational programs.
The other barrier is documentation of need. Commentators talks of the risk of overproduction of candidates, looking at the labour market and its projected needs for future employees.
And right they are: you do not find many job-adverts mentioning experience economy or creative industries competencies explicitly. And the industries themselves are too small (and poorly organized), measured in numbers, to justify a need for mass production.

In most of the corporate sectors and labor market, the workforce of the 21.st century, still consist of skilled workers and academic educated specialists - not of creative generalists and innovators. Yet.

A bottom-up breakthrough emerging
In spite of this, It seems like a veritable explosion of creative industries educational initiatives are emerging right now, most significantly in Sweden , followed by Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland.
It is a bottom-up development, where universities, university colleges, high schools and private initiatives are testing the demand by creating new vocational courses, shorter youth-educations, bachelors and even masters and executive training. They often do so by ‘coloring’ or versioning existing and approved curricula, instead of creating new ones.
It seems like the ideas are received very well among young students as well as on a managerial level.

Need to secure quality and coordinate
As in all rapid development, there seem to be a need to secure quality by benchmarking, sharing of knowledge and stimulation of debate.
Furthermore to coordinate efforts and cooperate to spread experiences of good practice and stimulate the creation of innovative spearheads, leading the way

Stimulation by other policy instruments and support
The educational initiatives obviously are stimulated positively by an array of bordering initiatives and possibilities encompassing programs, funds, focus areas and strategies within

• Research (the national scientific system and private funds)
• Regional growth programmes (EU, national & regional)
• Research - corporate sector cooperation promotion (various forms and institutions)
• Centres of Expertise (various forms)
• Globalization Strategies on innovation, upgrade of workforce, cluster promotion a.o.
• National and Nordic institutions (like Nordic Innovation Centre’s call for proposals)

It seems like the CI-researchers and project-developers are getting increasingly closer to the traditional support systems, which are opening up for the economy of service, experience and intangible assets.

Nordic strategy has stimulated the development

In 2003 the Nordic Industrial Fund began to take interest in the creative industries and supported the first Nordic network for Creative Industries, JENKA. The interest was unfolded by, at that time, re-named Nordic Innovation Centre, to an independent focus area in 2004.

There has been, among many supporting activities within Creative Industries, two call for proposals, resulting in 12 development projects aiming at specific industries, markets and topics. For more information: www.nordicinnovation.net

And several Nordic reports and conferences have helped the understanding of the character and potential of creative industries as an emerging sector, deserving a place in the forefront of the national growth strategies.

There is no doubt that the development since has been fast within all aspects of the creative industries.

Education is no exception and it seems the perfect timing to enter this scene right now.

[Denmark]

Denmark is seen by many to be in the forefront of the Nordic countries when it comes to official adoption and implementation of culture- and experience economy in national strategies and policy. In 2000 we saw the first national action-plan ‘Denmarks Creative Potential’ which was succeeded by ‘Denmark in the Culture- and Experience Economy’ in 2003.
The report of the Ministry of Science, Technoloy and Development, ‘Denmark must win on Creativity’ suggested in 2005 a number of measures within research and education, of which some are developed further and others are in the pipeline.
More than 60% of the 98 Danish Municipalities (2007) prioritize experience economy in their future growth strategies and the new born 5(6) regions ‘Growth Fora’s’, all have action plans and strategies for developing of tourism, events and experience economy on a regional level.

[Finland]
Finland has since 1980’s been very successful within digital technologies and electronics. Luckily, Finland did not chose to rest on the laurel’s. At the beginning of this century there was a strong debate among researchers, strategists and decision-makers, asking the question: Finland has a very competitive technology sector - but do we have the content to drive demand?
The debate showed a rising understanding of a shift of paradigm: from technology driven innovation - towards human centered innovation. This has reflected in many ways since with programmes for the development of creative economy and creative industries.
One sign is the undergoing discussion whether the complex of Intellectual Property Right laws should be moved from the Ministry of Education (& Culture) to the Ministry of Trade & Industry. Creative and cultural production is now merely seen as sources of economic growth rather as the cultural and aesthetic superflu of the welfare state.
Another evidence of the changes in Finnish policies and strategies is the merger of design, technology and business, materializing in the new university of Helsingfors. (se textbox next page).

[Iceland]
Iceland is one of the fastest growing economies at the moment in the Nordic Region. The country experiences a veritable boom of growth allowing many investments abroad. Within the creative industries, the country has had two remarkable global scale breakthroughs: the Icelandic music industry has made its mark since the late 1970’s where legendary Mezzoforte topped the charts worldwide. They were followed even more successfully by Björk since 1993. The other stunning success is ‘LazyTown’, a healthy entertaining fitness-universe created by Magnus Scheving, fomer top-athlete. LazyTown and its hero, Sportacus, played ny Magnus himself, has now developed into a global enterprise providing TV-shows, DVD’s, branded merchandise and food. A true example of a value-based, globalized and media-driven conglomerate of the 21.st century’s creative industries.
The government in Iceland is aware of the positive impacts of the creative industries on both economy and not at least image. All though no specific policy or strategy has been launched yet, there is a general positive attitude which reflects in various areas of the Icelandic administration, including education and research.
As for adopting innovation and knowledge utilization in the elementary school, Iceland has been the first country to successfully implement entrepreneurial courses in the teachers training and education.

[Norge]
In Norway the government has launched two programmes for promotion of the culture and experience economy. In 2001 we saw ‘Tango for two’ opening the party, cautious introducing the idea that the cultural and corporate sectors should cooperate more in the future.
It was continued in the ‘Action plan for Culture and Business’ issued June 2007 by three ministries, lead by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The plan lists 25 areas where action is to be taken within the frame of 50 million NOK. Most important, regarding education, it starts with proposing measures targeting ‘the need for developing the business competencies of the players in the sectors.’
In the very home of competencies development, the Ministry of Education, there is also focus on culture in the ministry’s action plan from 2007: ‘Creative Learning - strategy for Arts and Culture in the learning system’. Does this mean Bingo?! No - it is two different worlds that meet: the economic world, looking at culture and arts as a source of growth, employment, exports and regional development - and the world of humanities, where culture and arts are helping us as human beings to find identity, understand global cultural multiplicity and become whole persons, contributing to society and taking part in democracy.
I would not live without any of the aspects, but it would help the realization of the potential of creative industries if the departments talked a bit more together. The one perception does not exclude the other.

Sweden]
When KK Stiftelsen (Stiftelsen for Kunnskap och Kompetens, in English: the Knowledge Foundation) in 1999 entered the scene of culture, tourism, entertainment or what we at that time would call it, it set the pace for the development of the creative industries ever since in Sweden. The idea of approaching culture as a part of the corporate sectors and economics was not familiar at all to the official Sweden, still today anchored quite conservatively in the definition of culture as a public project of the welfare state.
Within KK’s overlying theme, ‘Development of Competencies for the Corporate Sector’, the fund defined an array of so called ‘creative branches’ as: upplevelseindustrin’, the experience industry. Thus mixing two terms (see text box, page 8), the definition has caused debate ever since and so has the defining of which NACE-code industries should be part of this.
No governmental policy, strategy or action plan has been launched yet - but the CI’s have surely been adopted at education, research and business-promotion institutions, both on local and regional levels. On a national level, research programmes have opened up for projects within the CI’s. National analysis, innovation and business promotion institutions like Vinnova, Nutek, ITPS and Innovationsbron have to various extents adopted CI’s in their programmes and activities.
But the biggest impact is definitely showing in the educational sectors, where Sweden seems to be veritably blooming these years. A multiple plethora of all kinds of creative variations within the vocational systems is available all over Sweden and on academic level you find still more offers.
www.kks.se www.vinnova.se www.itps.se www.innovationsbron.se www.kyutbildningar.se

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