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Photograph: Nauman Abdul Hafeez, BA Graphic Design, Arts Institute at Bournemouth, Feb 2009

 

Welcome to the wiki for Creative Interventions!

 

The Creative Interventions project ran from summer 2008 to winter 2010 and explored how work-related learning in the public and third sectors encountered during a creative arts higher education, is valued and fostered by students, tutors and employers.

 

Download the end of project report here!!!

 

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Updates on project progress

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Week ending February 18th 2011

 

Just added link to the project report. Please download for a comprehensive overview of project work and findings. Also some excellent news in that the British Educational Research Journal (BERA) has accepted a paper co-written by Dr Alison Shreeve and Catherine Smith, entitled: 'Multi-directional Creative Transfer between practice based arts education and work'. Not sure when it will be coming out, but we'll keep you posted! From SCEPTrE, Dr Jenny Willis' latest piece of research for the project is also forthcoming... watch this space!

 

Week ending November 26th 2010

 

It's been a bit of a whirlwind since the Creativity and Work conference and we've been lying down in a darkened room to recover and reflect. (Well, we've certainly been doing the reflecting bit!) 

 

Thank you so, so much to all the lovely people who attended and contributed to the discussions with such energy and enthusiasm. People came from far and wide within and beyond the UK - mainly from HEIs but also from a range of other organisations. There was a wide range of sessions, covering everything from theories of creativity to student volunteering to evaluating live team projects to increasing access to industry to recognising students' lifewide learning through frameworks and certification. We had a fantastic day of debate and discussion and captured our learning in a plenary session by identifying a key change we could implement within our own areas in our institutions. These included:

 

'Make my students aware of the potential of voluntary work.'

'Offer my creative students the opportunity to collaborate with business undergraduates who may wish to operate in the arts sector. Design a project where students from these disciplines collaborate to provide business thinking and design thinking.'

'Organise a student/industry conference to discuss and impart ideas about roles and work areas.'

'Encourage students from different disciplines to work together to consult in a professional context in the public sector.'

'Evaluate the need to provide work placements versus the idea of self-selection of placements by students.'

'Invite charities to engage further with students.'

'Develop a pre-placement mentoring/shadowing scheme with industry participation to engage students with practice as part of the core curriculum.'

'Conduct further research to identify key components of employability to add credibility to the academic foundations of award.'

'Adapt personal development plan/framework to include an element of lifewide learning.'

'Run a student event during National Volunteering Week 2011.' 

 

There were many more too... Luckily these ideas for change were also video recorded and you can see them here. If everyone acts upon them we will be very satisfied indeed!

 

Far be it from us to blow our own trumpets (!) but here's some* of the feedback we received:

'Brilliant day - thanks! Great to meet new people, format really worked for networking.'

'Excellent mix of people and speakers.'

'Very informative and valuable experience.'

'It will inform my teaching practice.'

'Surprising mix of sessions - but that's a good thing!'

'I have learnt some new things that I will take back to my course.'

'A well-designed, highly informative conference.'

'It has been an excellent day - very well organised and inspiring speakers.'

'I particularly liked having one hour sessions - time to engage.'

 

*We left off all the positive comments on the food & the venue - thanks RIBA for keeping us fed and watered in style!

 

Especial thanks must go to our sponsors at the HEA, our co-organisers at the ADM-HEA, and our project partners and advisors. Thanks also to Dr Paul Kleiman from PALATINE at Lancaster University for a wonderful keynote.

 

If you didn't manage to attend, don't worry as we filmed the majority of the proceedings. See link below...

 

Video Resources now available from the C&W conference - CLICK HERE

 

 

Statement of intent

The Creative Interventions project will examine higher education creative arts students’ learning experiences specifically gained via work-related activity in public and third sector environments. Examples might include students undertaking work placements in charities; Student Union volunteering initiatives; or live projects in a community setting. We know there is a vast range of exciting activity going on and we want to explore the territory and uncover the rich learning, life-wide benefits and issues surrounding these experiences.
 
The project will focus on how such experiences contribute to students’ employability and creative skills; how these are identified by students and tutors; and how they are currently valued and assessed. It will identify the best ways to recognise and value the rich and diverse experiences provided by both curricular-based learning and work-related learning (WRL) in the public and third sectors.
 
It will also test the assumption that the creative attributes that arts students gain through their course-based learning experiences transfer into public and third sector professional settings.
 
Please visit the Methodology page for our research questions and more detailed information about what we are doing and how we are doing it.
If you have any questions or would like to contribute to this wiki, please email Catherine Smith, the Creative Interventions project manager. Thanks for visiting!

 

Opportunities for engagement

We are keen to hear from anyone who is researching or teaching in the area of creativity, or whose students are engaged in work-related learning in the public or third sectors, as we are interested in gathering data from a range of institutions.

 

If you would like to comment on any of the information on this wiki, please click the 'join this workplace: request access' button in the right hand column of this page. You will be sent an email with a password and then you will be free to add comments to any of the pages. We are particularly interested in feedback on our case studies and any ideas for references to add to our ever-expanding literature review.

 

If you would like more information, please get in touch with Catherine Smith, project manager.

 

Project partners

This research project is funded by the Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellowship Scheme project strand; and is a partnership between the University of Arts London, the Arts University College Bournemouth and the Surrey Centre for Excellence in Professional Training and Education (SCEPTrE) at the University of Surrey. We will be working with students and staff from across these institutions as well as organisations within the public and third sectors.