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The digital content sector requires highly skilled human capital. However, the Australian digital content industries often face skills and labour shortages, exacerbated by insufficient supply of high quality industry-ready graduates together with 'informational difficulties in predicting demand for skills, and weak linkages between skills providers and some creative industries'. The Australian Research Council, three state governments, industry, and a large vocational education and training (VET) provider funded the 60Sox project to investigate the employability of 507 aspiring creatives. The project involved surveying aspiring creatives who work or intend to work in the publicly-supported, less commercial end of the creative industries spectrum as well as those who work or intend to work in the digital content industries. The project team set itself three objectives to analyse survey data that align with the overall purpose of the 60Sox project: (1) to identify the characteristics, skills and attributes of aspiring creatives who completed the survey; (2) to determine the extent to which aspiring creatives ([creative industries] CI graduates) have made successful education-to-work transitions, and identify any factors that influence the ability of aspiring creatives to make successful transitions; and (3) to determine the extent to which aspiring creatives engage in communities of practice in the creative industries, and identify ways to encourage their engagement with these communities and industry. This report is the first of two reports that aim to understand and enhance the employability of aspiring creatives. It consists of seven sections: executive summary; purpose of the report; characteristics, skills and attributes of aspiring creatives; education-to-work transitions of aspiring creatives; participation of aspiring creatives in communities of practice; and conclusion.

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This report represents the second of two reports that aim to explore views about the employability of aspiring creatives. The first report, released in June 2009, presented findings from a survey of 507 aspiring creatives, defined as recent graduates and/or people with less than two years industry experience. The survey gathered data on the characteristics of aspiring creatives, skills and attributes, barriers to employment, workforce mobility, career intentions, professional development activities, mentoring and industry supports, and participation in communities of practice/networks. This current report presents findings from a project that developed the 60Sox Employer Survey and then administered this survey to 50 employers in Australia's creative digital industries. The survey included questions on employer characteristics, recruitment and training practices, employers' views of the capabilities of aspiring creatives, and participation in communities of interest/networks, mentoring and internships. The main purpose of the project was to identify capability gaps of aspiring creatives as well as those factors that enhance or inhibit employers' views of the capabilities of aspiring creatives - both of which impact on the ability of aspiring creatives to find work in their preferred occupations in Australia's creative digital industries. To achieve this purpose, the project team set itself three objectives: (1) to describe the characteristics and practices of employers; (2) to explore the views of employers and the views of aspiring creatives in relation to the capabilities of aspiring creatives; and (3) to identify the factors that influence employers' views of the capabilities of aspiring creatives. The report consists of six sections: an executive summary; data collection and analysis; a section for each objective; and a conclusion.

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