The Creative Industries Federation, with support from the Institution of Civil Engineers, has launched a new Creative Education Agenda, outlining how and why the Conservative government “should support cultural and creative learning in the UK”.

In the paper, the membership organisation argues that for too long now, policymakers and some schools have pursued a narrow agenda in education, to the detriment of art, drama, music, design and other comparable subjects.

Moreover, the authors offer the viewpoint that creative subjects go hand-in-hand with scientific, mathematics and technology-based counterparts - the two groups are not independent of one another.

As they state in the document, “science and arts are not an either/or”. By way of example, they highlight the fact that “Nobel laureates in the sciences are 17 times likely than the average scientist to be a painter, 12 times as likely to be a poet and four times as likely to be a musician”.

It’s a fascinating insight into what we perceive certain professionals to be one, able to do, and two, be interested in, as if playing the drums is anomalous to conducting experiments in a lab. And even in spite of this evident connection, only 8.4 per cent of English students study such a mix at A-level.

Now, Nobel laureates are, of course, rare creatures, intellectual powerhouses whose abilities and way of looking at the world is rather distinct, but there’s a pattern in what they do for a living and the kind of creative activities they pursue outside of their regular vocation.

With that in mind, the Creative Industries Federation states that a “comprehensive education encouraging creative thinking skills” needs to be a key agenda item for prime minister David Cameron’s government.

Otherwise, pursuing and promoting a parochial programme - one focused on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects - is going to deny the country of the “innovation and creative thinking we need”.

“England is the only nation in the United Kingdom not to have a national plan that ensures that all children and young people are offered a high quality cultural and creative education,” the document states.

“England must join Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in producing their own complementary national plan. For social and economic reasons it is essential for the future strength and growth of the UK that all children and young people have access to culturally expressive lives and the creative skills required for successful careers in the creative economy.”

We should, therefore, be thinking less of STEM and more of STEAM - the ‘A’ of course being in reference to arts - when it comes to education. The inclusion of this as a key part of the curriculum is vital in delivering a wide-range of skills.