Creative Careers Days Enlighten Students
Date Created: 4th Dec 2019
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This November, schools from Southampton and Portsmouth took part in Creative Careers Days, run by Artswork, in partnership with Creative and Cultural Skills. Each day would see the pupils, who all study a creative subject, visit various cultural organisations in either city, giving them an insight into the many professions within the creative and cultural world.
Part of nationwide programme, ‘Discover! Creative Careers’ week, is run by Creative and Cultural Skills and backed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in England. The aim is to reach out to around 30,000 young people and teach them about the opportunities available within the creative industries. They also hope to make it an annual event in the sector’s calendar.
On the Southampton Creative Careers Day, students visited the Nuffield Theatre, Solent University, the Sea City Museum, the Network Eagle Lab and finally, Artswork. The Nuffield showed that there’s a huge amount of jobs involved with running a theatre not only on a show night, but also on a day to day basis, most of which go unnoticed to the public eye. The amount of jobs in each industry that are behind the scenes was emphasised a lot over the day, which was key, as it got the students to open up their minds to the massive variety of careers that are out there. A tour of the Solent University’s Spark building displayed what facilities they have available and the number of creative subjects they offer. Sea City Museum informed the pupils about working in the museum and heritage sector, and the Network Eagle Lab showed a space where start-up businesses can rent and network. At Artswork, events assistant apprentice, Calvin gave a talk on apprenticeships and how they are beneficial and can lead to a careers in the arts, followed by some career-related activities.
About the careers day, Calvin said “I felt the day was very beneficial to the students and they were clearly intrigued and interested by a career in the arts and creative industry. All of them got stuck in with the activities and hopefully learnt a lot.”
The Creative Careers Day in Portsmouth saw pupils take trips to the New Theatre Royal and Makers Guild, followed by talks from Portsmouth Guildhall and Artswork. New Theatre Royal, like the Nuffield, displayed well the vast number of jobs that go into running a theatre. Makers Guild, an open access creative making space, was another great example of what goes on behind the scenes. Portsmouth Guildhall’s energy filled talk got them thinking about how all creative careers are connected and to take every opportunity, while Artswork’s apprenticeship programme manager, Anna finished off with a talk about the size of the creative industry and apprenticeships.
Both sets of students really enjoyed the days, and left with a greater understanding of how to pursue career in the creative industry, how many jobs there are around, and feeling inspired to chase their dream.
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