Meet Jesse: Developing Skills in Creative Facilitation

The UK’s creative industries are growing – and so is the need for people with the right combination of creative, professional and interpersonal skills.

Skills England projects that priority occupations within the creative industries will need around 909,000 workers between 2026 and 2035, as the sector grows and existing workers leave the workforce. At the same time, new research from the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre found that 43% of creative employers report skills shortages or gaps.

Supporting emerging artists to develop their practice and broaden their professional skills is therefore increasingly important.

Through Create’s Nurturing Talent programme, emerging artists gain practical experience of facilitating creative workshops with people facing a wide range of challenges – while learning from established professional artists and from one another.

We spoke to Jesse Akele, a multidisciplinary artist and actor from the 2026/27 Nurturing Talent cohort, about developing as a facilitator, stepping outside her own artistic practice and the importance of collaboration.

Developing as a Creative Facilitator

Jesse is a painter and visual artist with a background in acting and theatre:

“The reason I [joined] Nurturing Talent is because I had a bit of experience in facilitating art workshops with younger people, but I wanted more training, understanding and structure to [become] a better facilitator. I wanted more training, understanding and structure to [become] a better facilitator.”

Now in its 11th year, Nurturing Talent is Create’s 12-month professional skills development programme for emerging artists. In 2026/27, six artists from different disciplines are receiving training and practical experience to develop their creative workshop facilitation in diverse and challenging community settings.

For Jesse, the programme also offered an opportunity to bring together different parts of her own creative practice:

“I hadn’t yet done a workshop that encompassed both my artforms, so I was excited to do that through Create, and to be more confident and experiment a bit.”

Learning Creative Facilitation Through Experience

Create’s artists work with participants with a wide range of experiences and needs. Understanding how to make workshops inclusive, responsive and safe is therefore a vital part of the role.

Since joining the Nurturing Talent programme, Jesse has gained experience working alongside lead Create artists on projects with survivors of modern slavery and young carers aged 8-13.

“I’m confident in my art and my practice, but I needed more help in learning about participants and the types of experiences they’ve had. Learning how to keep them safe is really important as well, so you can feel confident you’re able to help.”

Building Skills Across Different Artforms

Working with different groups has also encouraged Jesse to think differently about her own creative practice:

“I’ve learned that poetry and art can go well together, so that’s something in my toolkit now that I’ll use in future workshops.”

This cross-artform learning is a central part of Nurturing Talent. Artists learn alongside peers from different disciplines, sharing techniques, approaches and ideas that they can develop in their own work.

For Jesse, teaching others has even encouraged her to revisit the fundamentals of her own practice:

“When you’re thinking about people who may have never done this before, you’ve got to reconsider all of these options and gently invite people in. It’s like I’ve had a refresher in the foundational elements of what I do.”

It’s humbling because you’re never too good to go back to the basics.

Jesse, Nurturing Talent

Building Confidence and Skills as a Creative Facilitator

Professional development is not simply about learning technical skills. Adaptability, communication and the confidence to respond when something does not go according to plan are equally important.

That has been a significant area of learning for Jesse:

“I’ve learned that one of the key parts of being a good facilitator is having lots of well thought-out activities under your belt, so when something’s not working with a particular group of people, you’re not stressed and you have options.”

Rather than prescribing one way of working, Nurturing Talent gives emerging artists opportunities to observe, experiment and gradually develop their own approach.

The Role of Collaboration in Creative Practice

One of Jesse’s biggest discoveries so far has been the importance of learning from other artists.

Nurturing Talent brings together practitioners from different disciplines, creating opportunities to exchange ideas and discover techniques that might never otherwise form part of their practice.

“I’m not a musician or an illustrator, but I’m open to the workshop ideas [my peers] bring. I’m learning from other people’s art and I’m starting to feel like collaboration is one of the main [features] of this programme.”

And for Jesse, creativity itself has a significance that extends far beyond developing a career.

“People need to create because through creation is transformation, which allows you to digest people, places and things that you’ve experienced.”

Supporting the Next Generation of Creative Facilitators

As Jesse continues through the 12-month programme, the skills and experiences she develops will become part of her own creative toolkit – helping her grow not only as an artist, but as a facilitator able to create meaningful opportunities for others.

By investing in emerging artists today, Nurturing Talent helps build the skilled, thoughtful and inclusive creative workforce of tomorrow – and enables more people who face barriers to the arts to experience the transformative possibilities of creativity.

One Nurturing Talent bursary is supported by the Charles Lloyd-Jones legacy.