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Expert opinion: Tories promise spending for the creative industries but need to invest in education first

Jun 16, 2023

2 min

Dr Timothy Whitehead

If you’re looking for comment on this week’s announcement about government’s proposed £50bn investment in creative industries we have a design expert available.


Dr Tim Whitehead is associate dean and senior lecturer, engineering and technology, Aston University.



He believes that although the Tory's promise spending for the creative industries they need to invest in education first.


His full response is attached and below:



“This week the government announced a plan to boost the creative industries by £50bn by 2030 and invest £77m in funding for the sector.


“This news is fantastic and long overdue. The UK design economy contributes £97.4bn GVA and for every £1 invested in design we see a return of £4 to the wider economy.


“The creative sector is a major British export with film, TV, music being some of the biggest exports. However, we also have physical products; If you’ve ever used an iPhone, a Dyson or ridden on a London double decker bus then you’ve used world class British design.


“The funding is welcome, however we really need investment in our schools to teach creativity and align this with recent announcements in maths education.


“The majority of our most successful designers / creative engineers started with Design and Technology at school.


“Between academic years 2009-10 and 2021-22, the proportion of pupils taking Design and Technology GCSEs fell from around 42% to 27% in all schools in England. With only a minor increase in pupils taking Art and Design GCSE which increased from 27% to 29% over the same period.


“There is a big gap here, and we really need to ensure that children have access to a creative education as school.


“By embedding creativity into the next generation it will help foster new creative engineers data scientists etc. and the next Dyson.”


Dr Tim Whitehead, associate dean and senior lecturer, engineering and technology, Aston University


For inquiries contact Nicola Jones, Press and Communications Manager, on (+44) 7825 342091 or email: n.jones6@aston.ac.uk


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Dr Timothy Whitehead

Dr Timothy Whitehead

Senior Lecturer in Product Design

Dr Whitehead's interest is in developing approaches to improve the design of products distributed in low income countries.

Industrial DesignDesign for International Development3D Printing ‎Circular EconomySustainable Design
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