University role in the use of graduates in the creative industries

Abstract

Perspectives of growth of current global and European economies are nowadays often conditioned also by successful development and building creative industries. Creativity and creative class growth are currently considered to be one of the main prerequisites of sustainable business and successful development at both, level of individual nations and regions. However, not every region has the conditions for existence and growth of creative class. The ambition of this study is to demonstrate a way how to gradually find and identify these conditions. The introductory part of this study presents brief research of theoretical terms defining the areas of creative industries, creative class and the creative areas, and their impact on the state economy. Then the study, using the collection of secondary information, analyzes the aspects, which positively affect the creative class growth in various European countries, and explores the perspectives of creative class growth in the Czech Republic and its selected region. Given that the study deals with the identification of creative class growth, the main aspects at the regional level, the current situation was investigated by collecting primary information. The objective of the research carried out, was to define possibilities of the region's development by higher concentration of creative class and creative city image creation, and also to find an answer for the research question "What is or may be the importance of the university in supporting the graduates as freelancers". Discussion and conclusion, on the basis of the results of research investigations and using referrals from other EU states, identifying conditions supporting the creative class growth at a regional level and defining the role of the university in supporting the graduates as freelancers in the area of creative industry. A comparison of the results led to designing the model "creative co-working center", with characteristics of the activities identified by the analysis of research investigations. The model can then be used by the university in the implementation of supporting activities to enhance the employability of graduates - freelancers.