• What is Future City Jobs
• Why Future City Jobs?
• The potential of the cultural and creative industries
• The Future City Jobs six partner cities
• Contact us

What is Future City Jobs

Future City Jobs (FCJ) is a 12 month Action funded by the European Union PROGRESS programme. Led by the British Council, the Action is delivered by partners representing six cities from six EU Member States: Glasgow (United Kingdom), Prague (Czech Republic), San Sebastian (Spain), Södertälje (Sweden), Tallinn (Estonia) and Wroclaw (Poland). Together we develop and implement new initiatives which are meant to strengthen youth employment through the creative and cultural industries by facilitating the transition of young people from education onto the labour market. The start of FCJ was 7 September, 2011.

Why Future City Jobs?

The Action responds to the challenge of rising youth unemployment by unlocking the potential of the cultural and creative industries and addresses a direct request made by the partner cities to work together on the topic of youth employment in this industry. Europe’s future is in its cities. Already over 70% of the population lives in urban areas, and this figure is set to rise further. But employment opportunities for young people in Europe’s cities are scarce. Europe 2020 - A European strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth states: “The recent economic crisis has no precedent in our generation. The steady gains in economic growth and job creation witnessed over the last decade have been wiped out – our GDP fell by 4% in 2009, our industrial production dropped back to the levels of the 1990s and 23 million people - or 10% of our active population - are now unemployed” (p. 5) Young people under the age of 25 have been massively and disproportionately affected by this crisis, accounting for almost a quarter of the total unemployment increase since spring 2008. “The youth unemployment rate in the EU-27 was more than double of the total unemployment rate in 2009. (Eurostat 2010)

The potential of the cultural and creative industries

The cultural and creative industries offer new and attractive employment opportunities. The KEA report (2010) notes: “very few economic sectors have revealed as much potential for the economy and society as the cultural and creative industries” (p. 4). EC´ GREEN PAPER Unlocking the potential of the cultural and creative industries from April 2010 identifies them be of key influence in the development of the European information society. The partner cities together with the British Council recognise that - while the situation is serious - the opportunity is high. With FCJ, young people across Europe will benefit from new employment opportunities and city leaders will learn from best practice.

The Future City Jobs six partner cities

The six FCJ cities represent PROGRESS countries all deeply affected by unemployment:

• Spain – the highest overall unemployment rate in the EU (20.3 %) and the highest youth unemployment rate (41.5%) (Eurostat July 2010).
• Estonia – the second highest increase in overall unemployment rate (6.5% to 15.2% between the third quarters of 2008 and 2009) (Eurostat 2010), the third highest overall unemployment rate (18.6%) and third highest youth unemployment (37.2%) (Eurostat June 2010).
• Youth unemployment rates of the other four partner countries - Sweden 26.9%, Poland 24.2%, the Czech Republic 21.1%, the UK 19.1% (Eurostat, 2010).

On the other hand, these cities are also drawn together by the fact that all six of them have turned to culture and creativity as a means of achieving social, economic, cultural and environmental advantage – Glasgow, Prague, and Södertälje/Stockholm are former European Capitals of Culture; Tallinn holds this title in 2011 and San Sebastian and Wroclaw in 2016. Finally, they are all cities where the British Council or its partners have strong relationships based on previous successful co-operation.

Contact us

• Follow us on twitter – tweet back your ideas and comments on #FCJ.
• Join the Creative Cities facebook group to join the discussion. Share news on your own projects and ideas; comment on news and ideas from #FCJ and other creative projects and events.

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