The creative workforce: How to launch young people into high-flying futures

The Creative Workforce: UNSW Press

Whether we describe them as Gen Y, the Net Gen, the Millennials or the Yuk/Wows, today's young people have grown up in a highly technologised environment. They interact, engage and disengage with greater speed and choice than ever before. But are they equipped for a work future in which creativity has become the defining feature of economic life?

No longer the preserve of creative industries, 'creative capital' is needed everywhere, because novel thinking, navigation, interactivity, border-crossing and forging new relationships have all become crucial to success and productivity.

In this important book, Erica McWilliam argues that to enter the creative workforce, young people don't just need more education and training - they need a different sort of education and training. Using both Australian and overseas examples, McWilliam describes what creative capacities are, why they've become important to our work futures, and what can be done by teachers, employers, policymakers and parents to optimise the creative capacities of young people.