BREAKTHROUGH​’S ROLE IN CREATIVE CAREER DEVELOPMENT SHOWCASED AT WORTHING IDEAS EXCHANGE

Our programmes unlock creative careers for young people so we were delighted to be invited to contribute to ‘#DoOrDie? – Why UK Creative Industries Need A Better Offer For Young People’ an ideas exchange curated by Always Possible and The Social Society, supported by Creative Alliance and Worthing Theatres & Museum. The event was all about opportunity, careers, participation and access – and how to make our creative industries work for young people. It featured a fantastic range of speakers including two young people who have progressed their careers through Artswork’s Breakthrough programme – a paid 6‑month training and work placement scheme which provides new entry routes into the creative industry for 18 – 25 year olds.

Mawadda Edbagi spoke on behalf of Artswork. Mawadda has undertaken an Artswork Breakthrough placement as Creative Assistant with our awesome partners Creative Crawley. Mawadda spoke with passion and insight about the barriers and opportunities that she’s encountered in her creative career journey so far. As well as sharing her experience of her Breakthrough placement, Mawadda gave practical tips into what employers need to do to break down the barriers to entry to creative careers. You can read her full speech below.

We were delighted that our friends Future Creators were also represented by an Artswork Breakthrough participant – Zac Thorlby. Zac spoke about his work as Project Assistant on the exciting Coastal Catalyst collaboration, enhancing the life chances of young people along the Sussex Coastal Corridor through creative and cultural engagement.

Artswork are a charity committed to empowering young people to lead, be changemakers and actively get involved and work within the arts and creative sector. To find out more about our work and how you can could support us to make more positive change for young people, click here:

Mawadda’s speech

“Hi everyone, I’m Mawadda. I’m 21 years old; currently working as a Creative Assistant and I live in Crawley. I’m here speaking on behalf of Artswork, which is an amazing charity committed to empowering young people, like myself, to lead, be changemakers, and actively get involved and work within the arts and creative sector.

One of the ways they achieve this is through their amazing breakthrough programme, which is how I got involved with Artswork. It’s a 6‑month paid training and work placement programme run in the south-east of England, and provides entry routes into the creative industries. It gives eager young creatives workplace experience and all the important employment skills and insight needed for a future career in the creative industry. The placement truly is designed to be a stepping stone into the vast world of creative careers. However; in my, and many other young people’s experience, the land of creative jobs is a world we can see through a glass wall, but we can’t find an entrance. The Artswork breakthrough placement carves out a door for us to enter this elusive world.

My breakthrough placement changed my career prospects and self identity as an artist entirely, and in turn, this changed my life. My placement at Creative Crawley as a Creative Assistant, ended just last week, but Who knew taking a break from further education for a year, as it was overwhelming, and applying for a placement instead, could change everything you know about the arts and leave you inspired to take up your dreams? I didn’t, but I’m so grateful for the opportunity. Through the placement, I developed skills such as digital marketing, design, my confidence, and even skills I left back in Year 9 classrooms like Excel and Wordpress, which I’m now surprisingly proficient in. But most importantly, the placement gave me ACCESS, which is my main point, as unfortunately, there are so many talented young people, but they may think they can’t get a role – a recent study by Ravensbourne university shows that 42% of youth interested in a creative career feel they can’t pursue one as they think it’s too difficult to join the industry. So, we desperately need placements like this to give these young people what they need; a chance, ACCESS, to an arts role.

And I know I’ve said the placement ended, but my work continues as I’ve been offered an extended contract, which is absolutely amazing, but I couldn’t have secured that without the initial Artswork Breakthrough placement.

Following on from my experience, here are my top tips for employers on how to remove the barriers to entry to creative careers for young people. First, young people need to KNOW about your organisation, what you do, and what you offer. This could mean making and posting content on platforms widely used by young people, like TikTok! Now I hear you ask, how can we do that? How can we post trends and content young people will see, let alone relate to? This is where my second tip comes in. Hire young people. This could be as simple as hiring a freelance young person to design a presentation for your event, hire a young photographer or designer, or, hiring a temporary social media intern- you never know, they could change your organisation’s online presence completely! And there are so many creative young people searching for opportunities, so you’ll definitely find someone. You’ll also learn from each other, intern and organisation alike, which is invaluable in our constantly changing, increasingly digital world. And third, is to make yourself available to train and employ young people, even if its just for a short while. In less than a year I, and the rest of the amazing breakthrough cohort, have gained skills which make us ready to take up further roles in the creative industry. What if your organisation did this? What if every organisation opened their glass doors, even just for a while, to talented young creatives? So many organisations would be transformed, and careers solidified.

So, my final message is to look into signing your organisation up to take part in the Artswork Breakthrough programme, and if you’re a young person, get ready to apply yourself. Together, we can help young creatives to access their dream careers and hopefully in the near future, break down the barriers in their way. Let’s help champion the next generation of arts employees. Thank you!”

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