New research published recently by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre found that 43% of creative employers are currently reporting skills shortages, with 65% of hard-to-fill vacancies attributed to a lack of appropriate sector knowledge. Government-commissioned research sharpens that figure, revealing that while nearly one in three young people want to pursue a career in the creative industries, almost half do not know what skills or qualifications are needed to get started. The appetite is clearly there. The pathways are not visible enough.

Scenic construction is a good example of where that gap is most acutely felt. It sits at the heart of theatre, broadcast television and live events, yet it rarely features in conversations about creative careers. The people who build the environments audiences see are doing some of the most technically demanding work in the sector, and the route into that work is far less discussed than it deserves.

Why the wrong advice sends people in the wrong direction within the creative industry 

Part of the problem is structural. There is a well-documented tendency in secondary schools to steer students toward university, partly because school funding incentives are tied to graduate outcomes. Apprenticeships and vocational routes get less airtime as a result, even when they are demonstrably better suited to the career a young person actually wants to build. Nearly half of those who express an interest in the creative industries leave school without a clear picture of how to enter it, which means the default push toward university often goes unchallenged simply because nothing more specific is offered in its place. This challenge has been compounded by the reduced emphasis on arts and creative subjects within many schools over recent years. As curriculum time and funding have increasingly focused on other areas, fewer young people are being exposed to the breadth of careers available across the creative industries. The result is that many students understand creative careers through a narrow lens, often associating them with performance or design alone, while highly skilled technical and production roles remain largely invisible.

The financial argument for an apprenticeship is straightforward. A degree often comes with significant debt, while an apprenticeship pays a wage from day one and builds practical experience. Beyond the economics, the growing shortage of skilled tradespeople across the creative sector is likely to drive both demand and earnings higher in the years ahead, making the case for vocational routes more compelling than it has been in a long time.

What the creative industries are actually missing

The Creative PEC research is specific about where the pressure is concentrated. Hard-to-fill vacancies in the creative industries are attributable to skills shortages at a rate significantly higher than the wider economy, and the pipeline feeding those roles is not keeping pace with demand. Participation in creative further education has been declining across all four UK nations at precisely the moment the sector is forecasting substantial job growth over the next five years.

Scenic construction sits within that wider picture, though it has its own particular dynamic. The skills involved, across carpentry, engineering, metalwork and scenic painting, take years to develop properly, and they are not skills that can be acquired quickly or cheaply through short courses. The knowledge base required to build a structurally sound, visually precise set for the Olivier stage or a broadcast-ready studio in a live fan zone accumulates through sustained practice, mentorship and direct exposure to real projects.

Why the workshop floor teaches what a classroom cannot

Scott Fleary has been building sets and scenic environments for theatre, television and live events since 1993. The company’s position across those sectors means that anyone training in its workshop is exposed to the full breadth of creative construction, from the technical demands of a permanent news studio to the specific constraints of a temporary outdoor broadcast build. That breadth is not something a training programme alone can provide.

Apprenticeships in this context offer something genuinely different from formal education. The combination of structured learning and daily practice within a working environment means that knowledge is absorbed through doing, not just through instruction. Someone who spends two or three years building real sets alongside experienced makers arrives at the next stage of their career with a depth of understanding that is very difficult to acquire any other way. Scott Fleary’s commitment to training the next generation of scenic construction professionals reflects both the company’s history and a clear-eyed view of what the industry needs right now.

The visibility problem

The National Theatre has acknowledged publicly that too many young people who love theatre assume the only route in is through performance. The backstage and construction world, which underpins every production those performers appear in, remains largely invisible to anyone who has not already found their way into it. That invisibility is self-reinforcing. If young people cannot see the roles, they cannot pursue them, and if they cannot pursue them, the shortage deepens.

Changing that requires the industry to be more deliberate about talking openly about what these careers look like, what they pay, how to enter them and where they can lead. Thirty years of working at the highest level of scenic construction, across some of the most recognised productions in British theatre and broadcasting, is a compelling argument for what this career path can offer. There are encouraging signs that the industry is beginning to respond. Initiatives such as the London Screen Academy, founded by leading film and television producers, were created to help young people develop practical, industry-relevant skills and access careers across the screen industries. At the same time, organisations such as Creative Alliance have introduced specialist pathways, including the Level 3 Scenic Construction Technician apprenticeship, creating clearer routes into careers that have historically been difficult to discover. 

These developments will not solve the skills shortage overnight, but they represent meaningful progress in making creative and technical careers more visible, accessible and attainable for the next generation.