Whether it’s a suggestion that professionals need to simply ‘find another job’, or an eerily dystopian advert encouraging people to get into cyber security, all the UK government has done during this pandemic is discourage people from pursuing a career they might actually enjoy (heaven forbid).
So, let’s talk about THAT advert
A government collaboration that pictured a young female ballerina with the caption, “Fatima’s next job could be in cyber (she just doesn’t know it yet”), resurfaced recently despite originally being published in April 2019 as an attempt to increase the number of people of all ages and professions interested in a career in cyber. Fatima was just one of the subjects of this campaign, however due to the current climate that people in the arts industry find themselves in, it has reappeared at a time when it would not be out of place as government propaganda. Having said this, it isn’t, and multiple government officials including the culture secretary himself have agreed the campaign was crass and claimed they had nothing to do with it.
What does this say about the UK government?
Regardless of this, the fact that what was intended as a recruitment campaign has been taken out of context and so easily applied to the government’s mindset in 2020, demonstrates how the, “Rethink. Reskill. Reboot” concept is not a new one for the Tories. As the industry that has done its best to keep an entire nation sane during lockdown, people should be encouraged to pursue careers in the arts, not be told to retrain! Anybody would think Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak sat at home and didn’t watch any television, read any books or listen to any music over lockdown with the way that they have treated the arts recently. I’m sure that like the rest of us, they needed an escape from the doom and gloom of 2020 and if they can honestly say that the arts industry didn’t contribute to that then they must not be human. Convincing the government of their worth should be easy considering the creative industries contribute £111.7 billion per year to the economy but if that isn’t enough for them to be taken seriously then quite frankly I don’t know what is!
Good old Gen Z
In true Gen Z fashion, social media users reacted quickly to the Fatima advert by posting their own versions, poking fun at the government and showing the irony of the message behind the advertisement. These memes didn’t just come from dedicated comedy accounts but also from celebrities in the arts themselves. My personal favourite came from British singer-songwriter Joy Crookes who posted an image on Instagram of herself on the tube with the tagline, “Joy’s next job could be a City W*nker. (a job the U.K. government does protect)... Rethink.Reskill.Refuse”. This comes as it was announced that MPs may get a pay rise of over £3,000 a year starting from April 2021 as part of a new proposal from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. It therefore seems that Joy rather depressingly may have a point. Many social media users were also quick to point out the number of professionals from within the arts industry that would have been a part of this project and how this completely juxtaposes the idea that there are no jobs for them- if the government wishes to continue to plug money into campaigns that tell today’s youth what they can and can’t do then there will always be a demand for someone to model, shoot and edit the final monstrosity!
Why stifling ambitions isn’t anything new:
The youth of today typically find comedy in tragedy, as demonstrated by the aforementioned influx of memes and after all, who can blame then? Growing up in a time like no other, facing the prospect of a future moulded by a pandemic that renders education, University, holidays and any other joyful experience near impossible is sure to take a pretty tough toll on the mental health of the members of such a seemingly doomed generation. On top of this, those who hope to start a career in the arts may also be met with the typical Conservative parent attitude that whilst this government campaign might be a little harsh, they’re not wrong about there being a serious decline in jobs within the entertainment industry. This rhetoric however has nothing to do with the pandemic and is instead a reality that thousands of ambitious children have had to face for decades. Realistically, it doesn’t matter whether a child dreams of becoming a dancer during the 2008 recession, amidst a global pandemic or whilst they grow up anywhere in between. The fact is, some parents would simply rather ensure their child trains for an economically secure job rather than an enjoyable one.
Why it’s so important we follow our dreams:
How will you support yourself and your own family? Where will you live? What skills does it give you for future jobs? These are all questions that creative hopefuls have always had to answer to but when your country’s government starts answering them for you, what message does this send to current and future generations? Is the UK slowly but steadily becoming a place where no one can be allowed to do what they love with no questions asked? If we did not protest against the idea that we can all simply be retrained to fit the government’s agenda then we are implying that as a society, we are content with watching them ensure their own jobs are always safe but not those of their people. If we sit back and watch the things we love be abandoned then this suggests we will happily Rethink.Reskill.Reboot like pawns out of an Orwell novel. First comes the unapproved jobs, then the unapproved thoughts and before you know it we’re all trained in cyber with no passion in our lives and no energy left to question the actions of those who make the rules yet are exempt from following them.
By Kerry Violet