That was the message from a leading member of the Greater Brighton Economic Board which met in Worthing on Wednesday (October 22).
Worthing Borough Council leader Sophie Cox, said that building links with educators was crucial as was the government’s push to bring creative subjects back to the fore.
“We need to push forward in this very inclusive area,” she said.
“We might have some young people who are not so strong at technical subjects.”
She said it was important to “show them there is something for you in the creative industries – and this is how you get there”.
As well as the £797 million value for the local economy, the creative industries contributed £125 billion to the UK economy, the board was told.
This made the sector bigger than the life sciences, car and aeronautical industries combined.
Arun District Council leader Martin Lury, a former teacher, said he used to run an arts week, with a range of people coming in from musicians to artists.
He said schools today were “bogged down” by requirements for students to reach a certain level in academic subjects.
Cllr Lury said: “We’ve got to make the attempt to bring back the arts because it’s going. The number of music teachers is reducing all the time and that’s crazy.
“When you think about mental health issues, music is such a great way of combating (poor) mental health.”
Adur and Worthing Business Partnership chairman Andrew Swayne said the proposals were “timely” because skills and employment support would come under the new elected mayor for Sussex.
Chichester College Group chief commercial officer Dan Power said the vision “missed a trick” with the size and scope of the education facilities in the area.
The group runs Brighton Metropolitan College and other further education colleges across Sussex.
Mr Power said: “Just of today, there are 3,365 students studying across these fields from entry level to level four. We’ve got a £3 million T-level TV studio in Chichester.
“We’ve got podcast studios, theatres. I don’t think we shout about it enough how much we’ve got that we can use across the region.”
All four spoke during a debate about a draft “creative industries vision” for the region – and the Greater Brighton Economic Board approved the publication of the strategy.
Members were told the economic value of the arts, entertainment and recreational sectors had almost doubled in the region in the ten years from 2012 to 2022.
The strategy aims to ensure the greater Brighton area is the best in Britain at nurturing creative industry talent as part of a wider push for economic growth.