YouTube’s U.K. creators want more training and recognition — and the platform is providing

What types of institutional support do creators need in order to grow their namesake economy? That’s the question YouTube sought to answer through its Creator Consultation, a survey that solicited opinions from nearly 10,000 creators based in the U.K.

YouTube announced the Creator Consultation last year, when it teamed up with independent consultancy Public First to take the temperature of the British creator economy. The effort initially rolled out at the annual gathering known as the YouTube Festival, where the platform began collecting opinions from its U.K. community.

Eight months later, the results are in, and U.K. YouTubers have a lot of gripes regarding their treatment by local officials and authorities. The report found that 56% of creators feel they’re not able to influence government decisions that affect their work. And 43% of Creator Consultation respondents expressed a lack of recognition within the broader creative industry.

Other percentages are even more damning. Just 17% of respondents said they feel adequately supported when it comes to skills and training, and only 7% of respondents claimed to receive adequate support in their efforts to seek capital and business loans.

There are several U.S.-based firms committed to solving those problems. Airrack launched a YouTuber Film School to equip aspiring creators with essential skills, and Roster launched last year to connect channel owners with skilled professionals. Karat has established banking products for creators who receive excessive scrutiny from traditional financial institutions.

But the results of the Creator Consultation suggest those services are not as plentiful in the U.K. Instead, major creators like the Sidemen have started handling areas like investing on their own.

“Creators form such an important part of our economy yet we could still do more to give clear pathways for young creators to develop the skills and resources needed to reach their full potential,” Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg said in the report. “We should support and nourish young, aspiring creators at the start of their journey who want to explore a variety of options and pathways, and in turn help them build teams which will help open the right opportunities to them.”

YouTube itself is planning to open up some of those coveted pathways. Its partnership with the National Film & TV School will result in the launch of a Creator Incubator that will impart vital skills to the next generation of U.K. YouTubers. A blog post describes the program as the “first course of its kind” in the British Isles.

That partnership is a good start, but many other industry problems need solving. The Creator Consultation showed that creator needs range from government recognition to filming permits. Now, it will be up to platforms like YouTube to start moving toward necessary change.