Those who started secondary school this year (2018) will graduate in 2024. This paper, published in partnership with the Creative Industries Federation, asks what skills those students will need to succeed in their careers.

It argues that our future economy will be built on creativity and technology. With artificial intelligence taking over routine tasks, there will be immense opportunities for people who combine creative, technical and social skills - skills that are resilient to future automation.

In the paper we show that UK labour market projections predict that the rate of growth for both creative and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) occupations will be more than double the average job growth across the whole UK economy.

We also provide the UK government with recommendations to tackle these challenges, including supporting an industry-led careers initiative, making its technical education scheme fit for purpose and limiting Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ ratings to those schools that prepare students for the future.