Uganda’s young creatives could do with more skills

A new report from Caribou Digital reveals that Uganda’s young creatives need more knowledge and skills to thrive in the digital age, directly supporting better livelihoods and increased employment opportunities. 

In 2023, Caribou Digital collaborated with the Mastercard Foundation to make sense of the experiences of young creatives in the digital age. The research focused on the skills young creatives need to thrive today. It documented the experiences and challenges of youth in the culture and creative industries (CCIs) in a digital age, with 86 insights from creatives, policymakers, and other practitioners. 

The report titled Skills for a Digital Age for Uganda’s Young Creatives delves deep into the experiences of young creatives in Uganda’s CCIs as they adapt to the digitalisation-driven changes. It particularly focuses on the skills they need to succeed in this new era. 

Kisakye, a 30-year-old singer in Kampala, embodies the aspirations and challenges of countless young creatives. Balancing a nine-to-five office job during the workweek and performing at local restaurants and bars in the evenings and weekends, Kisakye is on a mission to make music her full-time career. She has harnessed the power of social media, using platforms like Instagram and YouTube to cultivate her audience and build her online presence.

For Kisakye, social media is not just a marketing tool; it’s a critical part of her journey as an aspiring musician. Kisakye’s story is one of many featured in Caribou Digital’s report. 

The digital age has revolutionised CCIs, providing emerging artist[e]s like Kisakye with new avenues to create and distribute their creative products and services. Platforms like social media and e-commerce have expanded their reach to a global audience, freeing them from traditional intermediaries and offering opportunities for income generation. 

However, as CCIs evolve in the digital age, skilling young creatives becomes a complex challenge. Formal education often falls short in equipping them with the rapidly evolving digital skills required in the sector.

Complex challenge
In an era where digitalisation plays a crucial role in economic transformation, there remains a lack of research to understand the extent of digital skills gaps in Africa’s creative landscape, the report observes. It adds that as the CCIs evolve in the digital age, skilling young creatives becomes a complex challenge.

Formal education often falls short in equipping them with the rapidly evolving digital skills required in the sector.

In an era where digitalisation plays a crucial role in economic transformation, there remains a lack of research to understand the extent of digital skills gaps in Africa’s creative landscape. 

“Digitalisation is transforming how creatives create and distribute their work and how the end users consume it. For instance, a young musician can record themselves on a smartphone and instantly share on platforms like Instagram, where followers actively engage,” Grace Natabaalo, the research lead at Caribou Digital, told Saturday Monitor. 

“While this presents entrepreneurial and employment opportunities for young Ugandan creatives, it requires a set of skills that are not formally taught at many educational institutions. We refer to these as skills for a digital age,” she added. 

Natabaalo said the set of skills combine digital skills (basic, intermediate or advanced) with a broader set of skills required for a digital age. This also includes entrepreneurial skills such as leadership, business management, project management, communication skills and networking, financial management, skills related to the sales and marketing of products and services (online and offline) and those relating to the protection of intellectual property rights.   

“As these skills become crucial, we wanted to find out how prepared today’s young creatives are to thrive in a highly digital environment,” Natabaalo said, adding that the Mastercard Foundation views the creative industry in Africa as a means to unlock the potential of young African talent if provided with the necessary skills and resources to succeed in the rapidly evolving digital economy.  

The other co-authors of the report are Lulu Jemimah, and Savita Bailur. 

The study found that young creatives recognise the value of incorporating technology into their work and are leveraging digital platforms in ways that benefit them such as finding customers online or promoting their talents through social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.  

The study shows that digital platforms have become an avenue to paid work opportunities for young creatives such as content creators and gamers.  

Online monetisation
The research found that while the majority enjoyed their profession, and felt they could earn an income from it, digitalisation brought new challenges, including pressure on visibility, constant need to update skills and in some cases, harassment. Some professions such as visual and non-visual artists (musicians, artists, photographers, animators, cartoonists, and filmmakers) within CCIs were easier to adapt online than others (such as performers, poets, comedians, actors), but the conversion from being online to tangible income was not always clear. 

“Most creatives find that getting online is only half of the battle. It is easy to set up one’s online presence, but monetising it is more challenging as they are still learning how to navigate being online. While you might have many followers on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, you need to know how to monetise your presence by, for example, creating content that stands out enough to get noticed by advertisers or sponsors,” Natabaalo said.  

The study also found skilling to be a multi-faceted issue, and while creatives could readily state the skills they felt they needed (including soft skills, digital marketing, personal branding, understanding issues of copyright, AI, and other new technology), the issue of who provided the skills and how creatives came across these was more complicated. 

Recommendations
The report presents a range of recommendations and insights, including the need for a skills ecosystem that fosters collaboration between various stakeholders, government support for skilling initiatives, and the importance of nurturing public and private spaces for creatives to practice and showcase their work. 

Grace Natabaalo, the research lead at Caribou Digital,  said the overall recommendation is that various stakeholders in the sector (government, development partners, training institutions) need to rethink the skilling ecosystem for today’s young creatives.

“Young creatives,” she said, “require a set of skills that can enable them to navigate the digital world—from knowing how to use social media platforms to present their work and attract consumers, knowing how to negotiate contracts or how to navigate copyright online or even how to not only use Generative AI but also understand the ethics around it.” 

Caribou Digital and its partners recognise the significance of empowering young creatives in Uganda to thrive in the digital age. The report highlights the enthusiasm with which young creatives have embraced digital technologies, the value of incorporating technology into their work, and the importance of continuous skilling to remain competitive and innovative.