Skills and employability in the music industry: an exploration of Dutch music industry professionals’ skills and employability

Over the course of the decade, there have been ongoing discussions about recent graduates of creative industry-based courses and employability in their chosen work field (Bridgstock, 2010). Although educational institutions are slowly adapting to globally fast-paced changes, by implementing the business plan in their courses, by developing closer ties with small-medium enterprises (Rae, 2004), hosting career fairs (Gibb, 2002) and applying the key skills approach in their programmes (Rae, 2007), research shows that there is still a gap between skills needed to perform on the actual job and graduates’ respective education programs (Bridgstock, 2010). National level reviews in the United Kingdom by The Higher Education Funding Council reported consistent mismatches between the abilities of creative industries graduates and those needed in the workforce (Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2004). This thesis delves deeper into the relationship between skills taught at the university, associate’s degree and secondary vocational education level and the employability of graduates who want to enter the music industry while exploring current educational trends in the Dutch educational curricula design and highlighting which skills taught are translated into employability.