Youth Arts

Creative Production and Skills for Work

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Collaboration, critical thinking and cultural competency are essential skills that shape young peoples futures. These key skills are often cultivated in the informal, creative spaces that society easily overlooks.

Drawing on the Australian Research Council and industry co-funded Vital Arts project, this book offers a bold and practical new vision: an inclusive, practice-based micro-credential system that recognises the competencies that young people build through creative cultural participation. Challenging prevailing policy narratives that pathologise young people, the book shows how partnerships between industry, cultural organisations and youth-led initiatives can reimagine education, diversify pathways into work and support genuine social mobility.

Offering fresh conceptual tools, compelling empirical insights and a t