The Creative and Cultural Industries are increasingly being recognised as a leading ecosystem in Europe. They make up nearly 4% of EU added value, employing around 8 million people, including around 1.2 million firms, the vast majority of which are small scale and microbusinesses. After the pandemic, where artists’ roles in live performance and exhibitions took a big hit, theatre and film, music, dance, crafts and visual arts are re-emerging and new opportunities and challenges are emerging from the rapid changes in digital technology. It is becoming clear that the sector has a significant role to play in sustaining democratic values and freedom of expression in the face of new threats in use of media to undermine truth and democracy.  

For young people, there are more opportunities than ever before to develop their creative imagination and talent into a sustainable career, but significant entrenched barriers remain. If a young person doesn’t have the advantages of economic resources, social and cultural contacts and networks that give them confidence and security to go through the long process of developing their talent and having it recognised, then getting a foothold to start a creative career can feel remote and inaccessible.  

Rinova has, for over ten years, run programmes developing the role of mentoring in supporting creatives in Europe to develop their careers, and has established the Creative Mentoring Exchange as a  free-to join network that supports the training and development of practitioners and artists working as ‘educators’ and ‘mentors’ in a variety of creative industry-linked, non-formal and formal contexts.  

The latest initiative in this field is Pathways to Creative Careers (P2CC), a co-operation partnership of five European creative sector training organisations supported by the European Union Erasmus Plus, which launched at Rinova’s base in Malaga in December 2024. P2CC focuses on using both individual mentoring and group mentoring in Collective Action Projects to address the barriers young people face in accessing a creative career. It will enable Youth Educators from five European countries (Sweden, Spain, North Macedonia, Italy, Croatia) to exchange learning and practice in mapping out accessible pathways for young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to benefit from the growing career opportunities in Europe’s Creative and Cultural Industries.