Mentorship For Building Capacity In The Higher Education Of The Cultural And Creative Sector

This paper focuses on how mentorship as an integral part of cultural management higher education could enhance meeting the needs of the cultural and creative sector (CCS). As societal changes occur rapidly, there is a need for novel ways to adapt higher education curricula accordingly, ensuring flexibility in educating students to respond to societal needs. We suggest that integrating mentorship into formal education could be one such approach. The research question is: What are the potential roles, benefits and challenges of mentorship in cultural management programmes in terms of knowledge sharing and co-creation? The aim is to explain if and how mentorship could work as a tool in developing the skills and competencies of future forerunners of the sector. The paper builds on an action research method and applies a qualitative approach to two cases of piloting mentorship programmes. The data collected include observation notes and surveys on interventions in two cultural management master’s programmes. The interventions include mentoring activities, peer-to-peer mentoring and co-creational workshops. As a result, the paper outlines possible approaches and suggestions for how mentorship schemes in the CCS could support the development of capacities to meet the sector’s needs today and in the future. The originality of the paper lies on its novel view of how higher education could build a framework for a new type of solution to address gaps in skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes among professionals through mentorship.