About
Inspire. Access. Thrive.
Creative Access is a social enterprise providing career-long access, opportunities, support and training to make the creative economy better reflect society
For individuals from communities under-represented in the creative industries, we provide:
- Career inspiration through events, role models and mentoring
- Access to careers through CV clinics, paid internships and jobs
- Career-long support to help you thrive
For employer partners, we:
- Help your build your employer brand and talent pipeline through events to inspire under-represented individuals about careers in your organisation
- Open up access to careers for under-represented individuals through paid internships and recruitment
- Enable you to build an inclusive culture through training to help your team from all backgrounds thrive
What we do
We are the leading progressive recruiter at entry, junior and mid levels for the creative economy.
We partner with over 750 creative businesses across the UK, including the BBC, ITV, Apple, Penguin Random House, the Financial Times and the National Theatre. This enables our community of individuals to access the most exciting roles.
Unlike most commercial recruiters, we offer personalised support, mentoring and training to create real change across the sector.
If you’re wanting to start or progress your creative career in film, TV, theatre, publishing or the visual arts, look no further. Find out how we can help you get a role in the creative industries.
If you’re an organisation interested in partnering with us, discover how we can work together.
Our industry-leading training programmes help employers become more inclusive and help employees access their full potential.
Our highly experienced team has a strong track record of delivering exceptional training for organisations across the UK. We work with clinical psychologists, equality lawyers and experienced creative professionals to deliver the highest quality diversity training.
Learn more about the training programmes we offer.
Whether you’re writing your first CV, progressing to the next level in your career or working freelance, we’re here to support you. We offer dedicated career workshops, masterclasses, mentoring, networking and wellbeing programmes.
Read more about our support programmes.
What we believe in
We aim to see a day when the UK’s creative economy will truly reflect and represent our society.
Our mission is to enable people from communities that are under-represented in creative industries, in terms of ethnicity, socio-economic background and disability or those facing significant barriers to employment, to access careers, progress and thrive.
Through our unique mix of diverse recruitment, support and employer training, our goal is to bring about positive and sustainable change across the creative economy.
Creative Access is a Community Interest Company, which means that we are a not-for-profit social enterprise. All of our profits are re-invested into our mission, so we can continue with our vital work. Our decisions are driven by the interests of both our individuals and employer partners.
We are hugely grateful to all of our industry partners, especially to ITV Studios who provide us with our fabulous home. If you’re an industry employer interested in partnering with us, click here to find out more about our offer. Alternatively, please consider donating to fund our life-changing work.
We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to access careers and thrive in the creative industries, regardless of their background or beliefs.
We ask our employer partners to commit to bringing in and uplifting talent from communities under-represented in the sector by:
- Widening the talent pool to include individuals from all backgrounds
- Investing in staff from under-represented groups to enable them to thrive and progress to senior positions
- Creating an inclusive workplace where everyone, whatever their background, feels welcome and valued
2022 – 2023 Impact
The last year has been a time to reflect on our impact over the past decade. We’re hugely proud of the progress we’ve made to change the face of the creative industries together with our community and our employer partners. But there is still much work to be done. Read our 2022-2023 impact report in full.
Key findings from the report include:
- 88% of our employer partners attribute partnering with Creative Access in the last year as having a positive impact on their progress in DE&I
- 98% of our alumni ranked one area of support received from Creative Access as either ‘significant’ or ‘very significant’ to the progress of their careers
In the past 12 months:
- 634 participated in mentoring programmes as either mentors or mentees
- Supported 332 people from under-represented backgrounds in the creative industries through our career development programmes
- Had 3,460 people receive careers advice and employability training
- Trained over 3,000 people this year via 168 bespoke employer training sessions and open workshops.
- Supported over 60 individuals with funding through the second year of our Career Development Bursary, supported by McLaren Racing
- Won Diversity and Inclusion Champion at the Recruiter Awards
Creative Access was co-founded in 2012 by three people – including our executive chair, Josie Dobrin – out of a frustration at the lack of representation in the creative industries.
Conscious of the positive impact we could have, we set out to change the conversation around diversity and inclusion in the sector. We persuaded leading employers in publishing, TV, film, theatre and beyond to partner with us and invest in talent from communities under-represented in the sector.
In 2022, we celebrated our 10 year anniversary and are proud to see how, together with our partners, we have dramatically improved access for people from communities that are under-represented in the sector.
However, there is still so much work to be done. Find out more about partnering with us.