Skillmill is an exciting project full of opportunities. It has now fully launched and is open to the public. And since you are here, we thought you might like to know a little bit about Skillmill’s backstory and why we decided to bring it to life.
Why the creative industries?
This question is easy – creative industries are some of the most interesting and powerful industries in the world. Creative and cultural sectors fulfil the growing demand for increasingly customized and personalized content, as well as the call for more options to offer consumers. Creative industries are innovation drivers, stimulating discovery and progress throughout Europe. The creative sector generates approximately 509 billion EUR in gross domestic product (GDP), or 5.3% of the EU’s total GDP.
In light of this, it might come as a surprise that there is a massive gap in the creative industries. Creative professionals and job opportunities are not being connected. Skillmill founders Max Hareiter and Ute Leonhartsberger saw this problem arise time and time again in the many years they themselves were active in the field.
Why creatives?
Creative professionals are the key element of the creative industries. They are some of the most innovative and flexible workers in the entire field. Creatives are continually developing new ideas and transforming them into the marketable products and services requested by their clients. They are also very good at problem-solving and never stop creating new solutions adapted to specific situations.
However, the talent of creative professionals is not fully represented in the industry. Many creatives feel “overqualified or underutilized” (European Commission, 2018). Creatives are finding it difficult to discover the right job opportunities and projects suited to their abilities.
Skillmill wants all creative specialists to feel appreciated and to connect them with companies and clients that will bring them satisfaction, motivation, and inspiration.
Why a social platform?
The online Skillmill platform doesn’t just provide creatives job offers. It goes far beyond and most of all, Skillmill highlights the importance of networking. Once they have an account, members can contact each other directly using the integrated messenger function, and create “Connections” that span multiple fields and countries. This makes it possible to efficiently establish a widespread professional network without significant administrative effort.
“In the creative industries in particular, collaboration is essential to success. Cooperation allows creatives to expand their capacity, to take on larger orders, and develop new services and offers,”
–– Ute Leonhartsberger, Skillmill co-founder and CCO
What’s next?
Skillmill is not planning to stand still. We want to introduce lots of new features and become an international platform for collaboration and innovation among the cultural and creative industries.
Skillmill is currently developing an online shop for creative works and products, and a virtual blackboard for the Skillmill community. We are also in the process of developing promotional tools to help users actively promote their presence on the market.
Stay tuned for more exciting Skillmill news! Subscribe to our newsletter!
