The concept of the ‘job for life’, still prevalent in business, governments and families. This places pressure on the growing individual, who is faced with further pressures as the pace of business life increases and knowledge becomes quickly outmoded and supplanted by new information. As a consequence, governments are beginning to re-evaluate the way they look at training and developing their children. At the same time there is need for parents and children to take more personal responsibility for the learning they take away from training programmes.

For institutions of higher learning, there is a need to align their choice of training with the strategic objectives of the country at the time. Today, in Kenya without a more rigorous identification of what is expected from the training, there is no longer any guarantee that the training will translate into success in life. This calls for the need to identify ‘training needs for the country’ as part of a wider system of ‘learning’, as the current 844’training’ does not do justice to the wide array of new skills, values and perspectives that individuals can develop and bring to life.

At a family level, there is a need for parents to take more individual responsibility for how their children learn, and the need to be more focused on the family and national values and needs in order to extract the right outcomes from the training they undergo. It is important that as citizens, we must be willing to commit to the national aspirations in a way that is appropriate. To achieve these, we need to develop learning experiences that will maximize value for both the individual’s own personal and national development.

As a result, this will shift in learning towards constructive outcomes other than individualistic competition experienced in the current 844 system. This holds that all knowledge is essentially personal knowledge – the learner is at the centre of the process, not the classroom, the lecturer, or the material they are learning from. In the future, training can no longer be merely a valuable thing to do for its own sake. It must directly benefit aspirations, improve specific skills of the individual, and create effective transferable skills for the individual to fit into varied environments.

In the past decade, we have all viewed education in different lenses; Even a relatively short time ago it was possible to think in terms of enjoying a long career with a single employer, building presence and status over a long period of time, this is no longer the case. The roles within organisations were clearly defined and the nature of the work would be consistent. This is no longer the case, as professions have changed and illustrates more clearly than before through the day to day needs of this organisations.

Organisations tend not to take a holistic, whole career approach to their workforce nowadays The impact of this is that the individual has to learn how to manage short-term relationships whilst moving from task to task and organisation to organisation. Sennett argues that as organisations seldom, if ever, provide individuals with a long-term career time frame; the individual has to construct their own career or life narrative.

The other issue is addressing the challenge of developing new skills and uncovering potential abilities as skills decay increasingly rapidly over time. A skill can no longer be viewed as being a skill for life, an enduring presence that will ensure one’s continuing security in the corporate world as once it might have done. Longer serving employees were once respected for the hard won experience they had acquired; they built up valuable knowledge, competencies and skills over time.

These skills were durable and had value. Now, due to the pace of change, there is less advantage in holding such skills. ‘Skills extinction’ has become one of the characteristics of modern corporate life. Adaptability has taken its place. Technological advances mean workers need to retrain every now and then. The notion of a single set of skills that will last an individual their entire working life is as redundant as the pitheads that once dotted the sales concept.

As the 844 system of learning in Kenya beckons, the ability to let go of the past; to accept that no one owns their place in an organized system, and that past services do not guarantee a future with the same employer. The future for any individual is more about potential than experience – what you can do in the future rather than what you have done in the past.

This changes in the way we train will themselves develop and mutate as technology continues to develop at a fast rate of change. As a result, learning will not merely be seen as a useful adjunct to building an individual’s career.

Learning will be seen in its rightful context as a strategic investment that creates competitive advantage for the individual and leads directly to growth and development. Let us embrace the looming change in our education system the prosperity of our beloved country Kenya. This puts a great deal of individual responsibility on each of us to seize the initiative for our national interest.

The writer is a professional chartered marketer and film industry practitioner. Can be reached at timothy.owase@live.com

The creative economies are important to state economies. Creative and culture-related industries, also known as “creative industries,” provide direct economic benefits to states and communities. They create jobs, attract investments, generate tax revenues, and stimulate local economies through tourism and consumer purchases.

These industries provide an array of other benefits, such as infusing other industries with creative insight for their products and services. In addition, because they enhance quality of life, the arts and culture are an important complement to a country’s development, enriching local amenities and attracting young professionals.

Governments are increasingly recognizing the importance of the creative sector to their states’ economy and ability to compete in the global marketplace. A number of factors underscore the connection between economic competitiveness and creativity.

Creative industries are growing in number and playing increasingly prominent economic and social roles; Companies’ decisions about where to locate their businesses often are influenced by factors such as the ready availability of a creative workforce and the quality of life available to employees; creative economy play a major role in community development and redevelopment by creating new jobs as well as fostering an environment and amenities that attract talented young workers; and Tourism centered on arts and culture contribute to state and local economic growth by providing a diversified and sustainable means for creating jobs and attracting revenue.

In today’s economy: Creative and new media industries are growing in number and playing increasingly prominent economic and social roles;  The market value of products is increasingly determined by a product’s uniqueness, performance, and aesthetic appeal, making creativity a critical competitive advantage to a wide array of industries.

The most desirable high-wage jobs require employees with creativity and higher order problem solving and communications skills; and Business location decisions are influenced by factors such as the ready availability of a creative talents and the quality of life available to employees.

After countries cultural assets have been mapped and analyzed, states can use information to devise economic development strategies that harness the economic benefits of the creative industries on a statewide basis. Such strategies not only summarize the value of the arts to a state, but they also identify new opportunities, point to productive initiatives, and reveal potential partners furthering creative-driven economic development in the state. The key elements of a good planning process are leadership and input from stakeholders, agreement on a clear vision, and visible kick-off efforts.

Identifying the right people to lead is critical to the success of planning efforts. A common strategy is to establish a special office charged with advancing the state’s economy through the arts. Just as states have identified specific high-tech, energy, health, or information industries as important to the future economic success, so too have to identify a variety of creative industries that offer significant potential for economic growth.

These include film, design, crafts, music, traditional arts, environmental art, culinary arts, and many others. Once a state has identified pivotal creative industries or economic clusters, it can then adopt different strategies—including incentive policies, development initiatives, training programs, or public-private collaborations—to encourage growth in that industry.

Much of where filming happens is driven by the script; it is largely a creative decision. It is important to let decision-makers know that your jurisdiction has that “perfect” location. Promoting your locations really goes together with your marketing efforts. Be sure to show off the alleys and the heavy industrial areas as well as the scenic parts of your country. To get that special acknowledgement in the closing credits, you will have to package your locations creatively and place an emphasis on service delivery and outreach.

Fast turnarounds: Producers want quick answers to their questions because the wrong decision can cost time and money.

 Direct Mail:  Identify decision-makers and show them what your location has to offer. Include images of your locations and information about filming in your community.

Marketing Calls:  Get to know your potential customers and check in with them periodically to discuss potential projects that may be in the pipeline. Watch the trade papers for projects in pre-production that would be appropriate for your location.

Print and Electronic Advertising; particularly on the Internet, Entertainment-related and production-related portals are increasing in popularity and usage. A trend to watch is how producers increasingly make use of these sites in developing their projects. Make sure you explore ways to utilize these sites.

Familiarization (“Fam”) Tours: Invite producers or other industry decision-makers to your community and help them become familiar with you and your locations.

In-Person “Sales” Calls: There is no substitute for face-to-face meetings on the studio lot. While trade shows like Locations Expo are popular and serve a purpose for some film commissions it is important to remember that most decisions get made in production offices, not in convention center halls.

How to improve your locations

Location Library: The purpose of the location library is to show producers the variety of available filming sites in your town. Each individual site should be treated to a panoramic view of the venue at one shot. Photograph the area to reflect how the production company would actually see it, and keep your file current. Update the photographs to reflect changes to the location. Keep a photographer on standby to provide a rapid response to any request for sites not already in your photo library.

Production Handbook: Typically, this is developed through establishment of a database, which is organized by categories of potential locations, crew, and vendors including equipment rentals or prop houses, and other ancillary businesses like lumberyards and stationery stores. This can be particularly crucial when promoting local opportunities – you want to encourage use of local products and services, rather than everything simply being brought from your area.

Website: Many organisations are developing sections of their website focused on production services, including a location library and production handbook. Have a website that can be used to promote your area. The advantage of placing information on the website is the savings in paper and postage and the ability of production professionals to access and print these materials at their convenience.

The writer is a chartered marketer and a film industry professional and can be reached at timothy.owase@gmail.com