Across New Zealand and Australia, fewer students are choosing creative subjects at school, and tertiary creative programmes face declining enrolments. AI is changing practice across creative disciplines, raising questions about the future of creative work and the capabilities people will need. But change does not mean creative work has no future. It means there are new futures to identify and prepare for.
Part of the problem is the pipeline. Fewer opportunities at school mean fewer young people discover creative interests, build confidence and learn about pathways. When creative careers seem uncertain or financially precarious, students and parents understandably favour more secure options. Institutions respond to visible demand and financial pressures. Programme closures reduce opportunities further, reinforcing the cycle.
This is not simply a failure of institutional decision-making. Education leaders must consider whole-organisation sustainability, while creative workforce needs are harder to quantify than demand in fields with predictable pathways. Creative roles evolve and new opportunities emerge. Uncertainty about future creative work should not be mistaken for an absence of demand.
The consequences are particularly evident in regional New Zealand, where fewer programmes can mean relocating to study or relying on remote delivery. Neither option is accessible or suitable for everyone, particularly those seeking practical, industry-connected learning. Established practitioners also have few opportunities to retrain as technologies and roles change.
So what could we do differently? As programmes contract, experienced educators and industry professionals are displaced, but their expertise could help develop new forms of creative education. Practitioners, employers and educators could develop specialist training, independent initiatives, industry partnerships and flexible pathways. PTEs are one option but the aim is a more diverse education ecosystem, not simply replicating existing programmes.
Training must do more than prepare people for existing jobs. It should equip them to recognise opportunities, develop new work and build sustainable creative ventures. Employers and practitioners need to help define skills and shape training. We are the creatives. Finding possibilities where others see problems, challenging established thinking and experimenting with new approaches are at the heart of what we do. We need to apply those capabilities to our own sector.
Advocacy for recognition, investment and support matters, but cannot be our only response. We can keep watching programmes disappear and calling for change or start building pathways and opportunities that don't yet exist.
We cannot expect a different future for creative education if we aren't prepared to help create it.
