The Great Cultural Drain

How WA Educates Awesome Musicians… Then Exports Them (For Free!)

Here's a fun statistic that should make every taxpayer question their life choices: Only 42% of WAAPA music graduates remain active in their field in WA two years after graduation. We spend millions training world-class musicians, then watch them flee to other states, or countries, that actually offer career opportunities. Or worse… get out of the field altogether.

So we're basically running the world's most expensive talent export program. We take bright young people, teach them incredible skills, then wave goodbye as they head east or overseas to places that understand the difference between investment and charity.

Welcome to WA's musical education paradox: world-class training, half-arsed career prospects. It's educational policy designed by people who apparently think "build it and they will come" applies to careers, not just fictional baseball fields.

Let's start with some numbers that should make Department of Education workers reach for the nearest stress ball:

• Only 54% of WA government primary schools offer structured music programs. Victoria manages 85%.

• In low-socioeconomic regional schools, that number drops below 40% - because apparently poor kids don't deserve music.

• TAFE's Certificate IV in Music Industry graduated 41 students across all WA campuses in 2023. Forty-one. For the entire state.

• WAAPA and ECU collectively produce around 140 music graduates yearly.

“So we underfund music education at every level, then act shocked when our industry lacks skilled professionals. Strategic incompetence: we've mastered it.”

WA's Instrumental Music School Services budget has remained frozen at around $10 million annually for a decade. That's less than $140 per government school pupil. Queensland invests $220 per pupil in their instrumental music scheme.

Regional WA gets the full neglect treatment. Many regional schools have no music programs whatsoever, leaving talented young people with zero pathway to develop their abilities, or really, even to discover their talents.

Those who do pursue music often move to Perth for training; then Melbourne or Sydney, or even further abroad, for careers. Regional communities invest in educating their young people, then lose them forever to places that actually value culture.

But longitudinal research shows students receiving sustained music tuition score 10% higher in Year 9 NAPLAN reading than peers without music. So underfunding music education isn't just culturally destructive - it's academic self-sabotage.

Meanwhile, we spend $375 million on sport and recreation infrastructure alone. Apparently, learning to kick a ball is 37 times more important than learning to read music, play instruments, or develop cognitive skills that improve academic performance across all subjects. Math is hard, but this math is stupid.

Only 8% of WA Year 11 students study music compared to 12% nationally. This isn't accidental - it's the predictable result of systematic neglect from primary school through high school. When students don't get quality music education in primary school, they don't choose music subjects in secondary school. And this, of course, has a knock-on effect. When students don't study music in high school, they don't pursue music careers or become audience members for live music. But it’s also a predictable result of a state that simply doesn’t value or invest in its music industry - what’s the value of a musical education if there’s simply no pipeline? Of course, those of us who are actually musically educated know exactly what the value is - even if we never apply the skills professionally. But parents encouraging kids to take classes where they can’t see a financial benefit in this day and age of precarious work and fragile economies? I don’t think so.

TAFE's Certificate IV in Music Industry graduated a total 41 students across all WA campuses in 2023. That's smaller than most high school graduating classes. Adelaide on the other hand, with half Perth's population, runs multiple music industry programs with hundreds of graduates annually. They've created pathways from education to employment.

“We've created pathways from education to emigration. Guess which approach builds sustainable local industries?”

WAAPA is genuinely world-class. It's probably WA's most successful cultural export program, and that's the problem - we're exporting all the graduates because there's nowhere for them to work here. We're spending millions in public money training musicians for Melbourne, Sydney, and international markets. We're subsidising other cities' creative industries while wondering why ours is anaemic. Pretty damn generous I’d say. And what’s hugely amusing about all this to us is that WA's music (and burgeoning film and television) industries will desperately need skilled professionals into the future - sound engineers, producers, managers, composers. At this rate, we’ll be importing talent.

A 2024 survey shows 70% of WA Music Industry Association members identify as sole traders or micro-businesses. Fewer than 15 full-time staff are employed across all independent labels statewide. We have demand for music industry professionals but no educational pathways for them and no industry infrastructure to employ them. While other states integrate music technology, digital production, and creative industries into their curricula, WA remains determinedly stuck in the 20th century, teaching skills for jobs that no longer exist.

There's no clear pathway from vocational education to music industry employment in WA. TAFE programs exist in splendid isolation from actual venues, labels, and festivals. Students graduate with certificates but no connections to potential employers.

NSW's Sound NSW program includes paid internships, mentorship networks, and direct pathways from education to industry employment. They're building infrastructure that turns education into careers. We're building infrastructure that turns education into expensive hobbies with generational debt attached.

But there are cities that have figured out that education pipelines need industry endpoints. Nashville: Belmont University partners with industry for guaranteed internships. Berlin: Music universities have direct relationships with labels and venues. Montreal: Government funding connects education providers with music businesses. Melbourne: Strong industry-education partnerships create clear career pathways. It’s not rocket science - it’s music, man!

When talented young people invest years and tens of thousands of dollars in music education, then discover there are no viable career paths, the psychological impact is devastating. Student debt, family expectations, and professional dreams collide with the reality of an underfunded, undervalued industry.

“We're training people for disappointment, and charging them a fortune for the privilege.”

WA spends $4 billion annually on education overall, $10 million on music education (0.25% of education budget), and $375 million on sport (37 times more than music).

If WA continues graduating talent with no pipeline for employment, who will drive our future stages, studios, and creative tech labs? Every graduate we lose to Melbourne represents a failure of strategic planning. Every WAAPA student who leaves for Sydney takes their skills, networks, and creative potential with them.

Every graduate we export is a win for other states' creative economies and a loss for ours. And post our unsustainable, finite ‘holes and houses’ economy finally orchestrating its inevitable demise… we’re going to need one.

We can continue running the world's most expensive talent export program, training musicians for other states to benefit from. Or we can build industry infrastructure that turns educational investment into local economic and cultural dividends.

The Pack is building a pipeline for our talented local musicians. You can help us create it. Support our crowdfunding campaign here.