CCI partners with UNESCO on a unique, world leading course

Jenny Mbaye and Andy Pratt have been developing the skills that they have honed in the COVID period of online teaching by developing a new online teaching programme for UNESCO. The e-course has had its first cycle and first graduates this month.

The course was aimed at mid-level cultural and creative industries policy makers in the ASEAN region (SE Asia), and ran over 8 weeks on online and offline activities. 24 students followed the course, and remarkably for online courses ALL stayed until the end. This is demonstration of the excellent course design and implementation.

Jenny and Andy worked closely with UNESCO on the content, using their expertise to suit UNESCO’s needs, that is to train in service policy makers, and those in civil society organisation and the cultural sector to engage with the UNESCO 2005 convention on the protection of the diversity of cultural expression.

The programme was so successful that UNESCO are now exploring plans to repeat the format in other world regions. One of the particularities of this type of course is the attention to local cultural differences; hence drawing on expertise and examples from the local region is a key element of its success.

This shows that CCI is leading the way in education and training in this field, and doing so at a global scale. Clearly the expertise and insights gained are of great value to our existing MA Culture, Policy and Management Students, and the MA Global Creative Industries students who will begin next academic year.