Disrupting the pipeline: Employability skills and adult learning in the creative arts

Broadhead, Samantha ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9469-1233, Hooper, Sharon ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4538-0193 and Gonnet, Henry ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3201-9211 (2026) Disrupting the pipeline: Employability skills and adult learning in the creative arts. In: Learning Careers, Higher Education And Work-Places In Times of Complexity. Rennes 2 University / ESREA, Rennes, France, pp. 202-222. ISBN 978-2-9564498-1-2207

Abstract

Education is often described through the metaphor of a “pipeline,” especially in the UK, where it is frequently portrayed as broken. This image suggests a linear journey in which young people move through stages of schooling, acquire the right skills, and emerge ready to enter the creative industries as productive workers. Yet this industrial metaphor sits uneasily with the increasingly fluid and complex nature of contemporary work. This study takes a different approach by exploring the employability skills that adult learners bring with them when they return to arts education, and how these skills support both individual and collective learning. Drawing on narratives from 13 participants in the Learning Returns project, the research maps their experiences against a consolidated set of employability aptitudes identified in recent reports. Creativity, adaptability and communication emerged most strongly, highlighting how adult learning journeys are iterative and how arts education can prepare people for diverse, imaginative and evolving careers.

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