Progression & Careers
Personally tailored careers information, advice and guidance (CIAG) for our students.
The Pre-Degree Progression & Careers plan provides a bespoke, tailored and scaffolded Careers Information Advice and Guidance (CIAG) model embedded within our curriculum.
At Arts University Plymouth we aim to align the learners' experiences, views and ambitions with the academic and vocational skills needed to future-proof learners for the 21st-century industrial landscape.
Discover how we are raising aspirations and connecting young students with meaningful encounters in Higher Education and employment environments.
Arts University Plymouth 2022/23 Pre-Degree Progression & Careers year plan | Gatsby Careers Benchmark (GCB) coverage | |
September 2022 |
| GCB: 1
GCB: 2 GCB: 4+5 GCB: 7 GCB: 3 GCB: 7 GCB: 7 |
October 2022 |
| GCB:4 GCB:4 GCB: 7 GCB: 1 GCB: 1 GCB: 1 GCB: 5 GCB: 1 GCB: 3 |
| November 2022 |
| GCB: 4+6 GCB: 4 GCB: 1 GCB: 7 GCB: 2 GCB: 4+5 GCB: 4 |
| December 2022 |
| GCB: 4+6 GCB: 7 GCB: 1 GCB: 1 GCB: 4+5 GCB: 1 |
| January 2023 |
| GCB: 8 GCB: 1 GCB: 4+5 GCB: 1 |
| February 2023 |
| GCB: 8 GCB: 1 GCB: 5 |
| March 2023 |
| GCB: 8 GCB: 6 GCB: 1 GCB: 1 GCB: 1 |
| April 2023 |
| GCB: 8 GCB: 8 GCB: 1 |
| May 2023 |
| GCB: 8 GCB: 8 GCB: 1 |
| June 2023 |
| GCB: 5 GCB: 8 |
| July 2023 |
| GCB: 8 |
The ARTiculation competition is a nationally-acclaimed annual event designed to promote the appreciation and discussion of art. The competition seeks to engage all full-time students aged 16-19 - and regardless of background or experience - with art, and to develop their confidence and ability to express their opinions and thoughts through critical thinking and problem solving techniques.
The Skills Project continues to provide an embedded methodology to develop personal development, British values and progression readiness through the recognition and collective ownership of a set of values required to meet these important demands. The Project allows our teachers and students to track and communicate progress in relation to employability and soft skills via regular progress checks. In terms of impact, we continually assess Pre-Degree learners through progress checks to measure the demonstration of character traits and attributes that mirror expectations of working in higher education or industry.
This project is designed to enhance your professional practice and our learners maturity as an artist, maker or designer. The skills and knowledge they gain in this project will be transferable in any chosen academic or career path. They will explore elements of a business focused environment, this brief is about creativity, collaboration and commercialism.
Service learning provides opportunities for students to understand their capacity to make a meaningful contribution to their community and society. The purpose is for students to contribute to society by improving the lives of people or assisting the environment or animals.
NEET stands for "Not in Education, Employment, or Training." It refers to a person who is unemployed, not in school or in a meaningful training programme.
Work shadowing - Generally refers to a specified, often short and at times, where necessary supervised period of time between 1 or 2 hours or 1 or 2 days that a young person spends within the workplace. The young people taking part in work shadowing activities are not intended to be performing work tasks, but rather learning about the world of work and the industrial environment. (GCB 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 + 8)
Work placement - This can also include lengthy internships & usually refer to a longer period of time that a young person spends within the workplace. This is predominantly unsupervised by a member of academic staff and students have an opportunity to learn directly about industrial expectations, working life and the working environment. (GCB 4, 5, 6 + 8)
Volunteering - This experience will usually be an arrangement between the young person and an organisation which will not entitle them to a financial reward or benefit in kind for work they perform under the arrangement. (GCB 4, 5, 6 + 8)
Freelance work - This experience will be aligned closely with creative industrial expectations. The creative industries are one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK, with around 47% of working people self-employed or working as independent freelance creative practitioners. (GCB 4 + 6).
Design To Sell, our long-running fair and marketplace where Pre-Degree students sell their work, takes place annually in our dedicated Pre-Degree buildings.
The Arts University Plymouth, Pre-Degree Progression and Careers year plan is achieved via two platforms of engagement within each learners study programme. The first platform of activities are embedded within the enriching and diverse curriculum model delivered in sessions and includes Creative Careers Toolkit interventions, University progression workshops, the Design to Sell project where we turn our whole campus into a shop for three days, national competitions such as ARTiculation and Worldskills and International Baccalaureate Service Learning interventions and activities.
The second platform exists as activities that sit outside the formal curriculum model and includes Work Placement opportunities, the Pre-Degree enrichment programme, our Year 2 GAP year club, and weekly careers interventions that start in January and continue through to June.
In addition to these platforms of engagement, we intricately track and thread the Pre-Degree Skills Project throughout the course of each learners study programme.
The Skills Project continues to provide an embedded methodology to develop personal development, British values and progression readiness through the recognition and collective ownership of a set of values required to meet these important demands. The Project allows our teachers and students to track and communicate progress in relation to employability and soft skills via regular progress checks.
We continually develop and improve on our Pre-Degree progression and careers provision. Our intention is to continually keep working towards the university’s ethos of continual creative learning and social justice via the Pre-Degree Skills Project, whilst also driving toward 100% achievement of the Gatsby Career Benchmarks. The Gatsby Benchmarks are a framework of 8 guidelines that define the best careers provision in schools and colleges.
Our university provides a number of qualifications, we offer a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design course, a suite of 6 UAL Art and Design Extended Diploma courses including Graphics, Illustration and Game Arts, Film, Animation and Media Production, Photography, Fashion and Textiles and Art and Design and a Level 2 Diploma in Art and Design course.
Our students are able to engage with a number of work experiences from across a multitude of industrial sectors including: Construction, Engineering, Design and Technology, Visual Communication, Architectural design, Fashion, Media and Marketing, Radio as well as in the Public and Health sectors. Which helps them to build upon new and existing skills to align these with professional practice and industry expectation.
The Gatsby Benchmarks were developed on behalf of the Gatsby Foundation by Sir John Holman, which aimed to highlight what "good careers work" looked like. They provide us with a clear framework for organising our careers provision, and have been accepted as best practice by the Government.
Find out more about the Gatsby benchmarks here.
| Gatsby Career Benchmark | Brief description |
| 1. A stable careers programme | Every school and college should have an embedded programme of career education and guidance that is known and understood by pupils, parents, teachers and employers. |
| 2. Learning from career and labour market information | Every pupil, and their parents, should have access to good-quality information about future study options and labour market opportunities. They will need the support of an informed adviser to make best use of available information. |
| 3. Addressing the needs of each pupil | Pupils have different career guidance needs at different stages. Opportunities for advice and support needs to be tailored to the needs of each pupil. A school’s careers programme should embed equality and diversity considerations throughout. |
| 4. Linking curriculum learning to careers | All teachers should link curriculum learning with careers. For example, STEM subject teachers should highlight the relevance of STEM subjects for a wide range of future career paths. |
| 5. Encounters with employers and employees | Every pupil should have multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace. This can be through a range of enrichment activities including visiting speakers, mentoring and enterprise schemes. |
| 6. Experiences of workplaces | Every pupil should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities, and expand their networks. |
| 7. Encounters with further and higher education | All pupils should understand the full range of learning opportunities that are available to them. This includes both academic and vocational routes and learning in schools, colleges, universities and in the workplace. |
| 8. Personal guidance | Every pupil should have opportunities for guidance interviews with a careers adviser, who could be internal (a member of school staff) or external, provided they are trained to an appropriate level. These should be available whenever significant study or career choices are being made. They should be expected for all pupils but should be timed to meet their individual needs. |
If you are 11—19 and living in the South of England, Careerpilot has all of the information you need to help you plan your future study and work.
Find out about and look at:
- Your choices at 14, 16 and 18
- Different job sectors and what they are looking for
- Information on routes to different qualifications including apprenticeships and university level study
- Your skills and how to use them
- Online careers sessions and stories
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