Communications’ Kickstart ‘reporter’ Grace reviews her placement experience

In July 2021, Artswork began providing Kickstart places to eligible 16–24 year olds through the government funded scheme. Since then, a second cohort began in September, and another is planned for this year. Cohort one’s placements are now ending, and our ‘reporter’ Grace has written one final blog reflecting on her journey. Artswork was passionate that our temporary recruits would not only be given many new responsibilities, but also be ready to progress into creative careers afterwards, equipped with more confidence and transferrable skills to do so. Grace feels that her placement has gone above and beyond in this. 

My placement has been, certainly from my point of view, a resounding success. I’ve learnt so much, both about myself and how this industry works. Throughout the whole of my time here, my colleagues and trainers have ensured all Kickstarters had a chance to give input and be heard. They know how difficult it can be as a young person to get into arts and culture when you don’t have a sector-relevant degree (or one at all), and the job market is so competitive. They also saw how deeply we as a young demographic have been affected by the pandemic, which has reduced our work opportunities even further.  

I’ve found too that everyone I’ve worked with was always happy to give a word of advice or help as much as possible if I reached an impasse.

Another facet of this organisation is that it isn’t overly hierarchical like others – we all know there are different levels, but no-one is made to feel like their contributions don’t matter due to being a lower rank. In staff meetings and training sessions, we worked together to achieve better collective understanding and collaboration, and everyone was given a chance to speak. I’ve never worked at somewhere quite like it, and it’s been such a privilege to have been able to expand on my creative interests, use them to help others, and acquire a great deal of knowledge. When I look back to how I felt at the beginning of my placement, I was so unsure if I would be able to do everything required, and nervous that I’d fall behind because I’d not worked in communications or marketing before.  

Jane and Anna – our lovely trainers who led our initial learning and have supported us throughout, kept reminding me that as long as I took one new step at a time, I’d be able to pick it all up. Like the proverbial tortoise and the hare, if you take your journey slow and steady, you’ll reach the finish line (or in this case, a place of competence and ability.) 

I’ve had many responsibilities during this placement – copywriting news articles and blogs for the website, social media content with graphics, helping to compile organisational newsletters, participating and presenting in team meetings, developing a social media project and more. The parts that surprised me in how much I enjoyed doing them (and the fact that I could!) were using the back end of WordPress to update our website, and discovering the world of analytics. From taking a Google Analytics for Beginners course, I was able to learn a great deal about those who visit our website, and what they look for. Similarly, the data available in our email host Campaign Monitor was invaluable for examining which types of content really grabbed people, and in which formats. By using this, I knew how to improve the next newsletter to focus it more on what our subscribers wanted to see/hear about. 

Of course, like every new role, it hasn’t been without hiccups. Although my passion for the arts, culture and creativity is long-standing, where my previous work experience has been solely retail-based, I was pretty much starting from the beginning. Cue the various teething problems with getting to grips with uploading and editing, asking my very patient colleague Lisa how to code, and having trials with re-sizing images to be printed on a giant stand. There have been times where I’ve been frustrated with myself and I’m sure my colleagues have been too, but the most important thing I’ve realised is that you can’t learn and improve without first making mistakes. When you do, it makes you find other ways to problem solve, which hopefully means you won’t do it again. 

I recently enjoyed the chance to share this and other insights with young people via my social media takeover day on Dec 9th. Because I know what it’s like to have a dream to work in arts and culture but have more questions than you know what to do with, I wanted to aid other young people on their journeys.

As I write this, I’m not sure where my journey will take me next. We usually see uncertainty as a bad thing, but in this case I prefer to see it as a blank canvas. I always knew this would only be a fixed term experience, and that’s why I’ve made the most out of it. I may once again be out of work, but I’m in a better place now. I’ve learnt more over the last 6 months than I’ve thought possible, and there is so much I’ve added to my CV. Artswork gave me a chance to work in the industry I love when no-one else had, and I’m now much more confident in applying for similar roles. I couldn’t have done any of this without those who trained me, and my colleagues in Communications. If you’d love to work with us, visit this link to see our current opportunities, where we’ll also be posting the next round of Kickstart vacancies. 

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