The Arts Council has launched a wide-ranging consultation paper designed to ensure that education and training form the foundation of British culture. Teachers, arts organisations and local authorities are among those being canvassed on the best ways of developing the academic and vocational initiatives which the Council already supports to the tune of more than Pounds 4 million a year, and which are set to benefit hugely from a proposed increase in the amount of National Lottery cash awarded to young people .
Drawn up after a year of information-gathering meetings all over England, the Green Paper sets out five main target areas covering all age groups.
Issues raised for discussion range from supplementary training for highly-qualified freelance actors, musicians and artists, to broadening the scope of pre-school arts education (recent research indicates that fewer than one in five organisations funded by the Arts Council offers educational activities for the under-fives).
Other proposals include the possibility of introducing an accreditation scheme designed to guarantee the quality of education and training offered by individual arts organisations and educational establishments.
Responses to the Green Paper, to be received by August 16, will be combined with submissions to the Council’s consultation on the new Lottery programme in a joint White Paper on education and training, which is likely to be published in the autumn.
Copies of the Green Paper can be obtained by sending an SAE to: Education and Training Green Paper, Education and Training Department, The Arts Council of England, 14 Great Peter Street, London, SW1P 3NQ.
