Is creativity being underdeveloped or underutilised?

With technology growing throughout the Australian workplace, claims have been made that creativity is slowly being disregarded. Is it a case of creativity being underdeveloped at the educational level or underutilised in the workplace?

The new Creativity in Education Report conducted by Canva has revealed insights into the state of creativity in education and its impact on graduates entering a rapidly evolving workforce.

According to the data of 1,000 recent Australian university graduates, educators, and hiring managers, the majority of recent graduates (86 per cent) and hiring managers (83 per cent) consider creativity essential for finding a job and succeeding in the workplace.

Despite this overwhelming belief in creativity, 85 per cent of educators want to encourage more creativity in the classroom; however, challenges around lack of time, curriculum that integrates creativity, and funding resources often dispel creativity from formulating.

The report calls for a shift in educational focus to better prepare students through higher education for the demands of a rapidly evolving job market that requires creativity as a key skill set.

“Even with technology and AI reshaping the workforce, creativity is one of the few skills that will always be essential for innovation and problem solving. It is an inherently human trait that can not be replicated with technology. But creativity needs to be developed and fostered over time. And it needs to start at the earliest stages of education,” said Carly Daff, head of teams and education at Canva.

“Unfortunately, while educators understand the importance of fostering creativity, they don’t have the space or resources to encourage it in the classroom. If we’re serious about preparing our talent for future demands, particularly as our workforce becomes more global, we need to rethink how creativity can be integrated into the classroom and provide more support with access to readily available resources that place creativity at its core.”

Other key findings from the report show that 83 per cent of Australian hiring managers think creativity is important to landing a job and rank it as the most important skill they look for in talent (56 per cent), ahead of problem solving (53 per cent) and communication (49 per cent).

It’s well known that creativity starts from the earliest age. The majority of educators (70 per cent) and hiring managers (68 per cent) believe educators should encourage creativity to a great extent, especially in the early stages of education. This is reinforced by more than half (58 per cent) of educators agreeing that creativity should be emphasised in the classroom as early as primary school.

As new technologies like AI continue to transform the Australian workplace, the need for human creativity is more important than ever.

While the majority of hiring managers (57 per cent) and recent graduates (54 per cent) believe that the rise of AI will encourage more creative thinking, educators are wary, with only a quarter (26 per cent) believing it will, as technology cannot fully replicate the innovative problem solving that human creativity drives.

“We review more than 300,000 applications each year, and the most successful candidates are those who can think outside the box and approach problems with a creative mindset. We believe in investing in creativity from the ground up, starting in the classroom so that the next generation is equipped to meet future challenges,” Amy Schultz, Canva’s global head of talent acquisition.

Although the sentiments of creativity being a focal point in the workplace are shared among the groups featured in the report, there have been other opinions that have claimed that employers often disregard creativity.

As recently reported on HR Leader, leaders claimed that they do, in fact, reward creativity (41 per cent); however, respondents that were lower than them on the organisational hierarchy disagreed with this notion.

With employees stating that organisations may disregard creativity in their hierarchy of skills, it highlights a disconnect between employers and workers. If creativity is going to be pushed forward through organisations, then that disconnect must be fixed.