What is Creative Calling?
Creative Calling – Creative Careers is a new initiative led by Creative Ireland, with support from Screen Ireland, the Arts Council, Shared Island funding and Coimisiún na Meán, and managed by Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet .
The aim of the programme is to make young people more aware of the various career opportunities that exist across the creative and cultural sector.
Creative Calling started as a pilot in June 2025. Since then, the team has been busy building the programme, including running an extensive youth consultation, engaging with creative organisations and career guidance counsellors, developing resources, building pilot workshops with colleagues in Northern Ireland, and attending careers fairs. We will be at Higher Options and World Skills in September 2026, and attending other regional careers events. If you would like more information, please contact us using the contact form on the Homepage.
What is Ireland’s cultural and creative sector?
Sectors included in this programme include: Architecture, Design, Advertising, Cultural Spaces, Festivals, Film, TV, Animation, Visual Effects (VFX), Games, Immersive Entertainment, Journalism, Media, Radio, Literature, Publishing, Music, Performance, Theatre, Dance, Visual Arts, Fashion, Craft.
These are sectors that the Government has shown consistent support for in recent years, whether that’s increasing funding for artists workspaces, investing in the development of grass roots music, enhancing tax credits for the TV, Digital Games, and VFX industries, or investing more in the promotion of Irish culture on the world stage.
What about employment?
Across the EU, an estimated 8.9 million people work in the cultural and creative sector, which equates as 4.3% of total EU employment; in 2025, almost 97,000 people were engaged in cultural employment in Ireland [Eurostat]. As well as uplifting people’s lives, and giving a sense of purpose, these sectors have a serious contribution to make to the future of Ireland’s success.
What do we want students to know?
Ireland’s cultural and creative industries have thousands of different job roles across multiple sectors, open to everyone. You don’t have to be ‘creative’ to have a creative career, the sector also needs lawyers, administrators, accountants, researchers, managers, sustainability officers etc.
The skills required for this sector – such as resilience, flexibility, motivation, creative thinking, and critical inquiry – are increasingly important to employers all over the world, especially in a workforce constantly evolving with the proliferation of AI.
Working in the creative sector can bring a sense of meaning and purpose, and a feeling of community.