Creative Slough case study:Creative Academy

What’s Slough Creative Academy all about?

The Creative Industries is a fast growing sector of the UK economy, employing nearly 2 million people. But very few women, people from the BME community, the disabled or white working-class men are getting a look in – either as employees, freelancers or business owners. The Creative Academy is Slough’s inspirational contribution to changing all that. It is part of the multi-region Last Mile programme, funded by the European Union’s Equal initiative, and is the largest of its kind in Europe.

The Creative Academy (Regional Winner – Enterprising Britain 2007) provides local people with an innovative programme of creative skills development and business support in art, dance, film, music technology, singing, textiles, theatre, video production, and much more. But it doesn’t stop there. Changing the make-up of the industry also means getting employers involved and demonstrating that diversity makes good business sense.

The Creative Academy is one of a number of programmes which make up Creative Slough – a strategy for enabling local people to share in Slough’s economic success.

What do we do?

  • We support local freelancers, micro businesses and SMEs.
  • We provide training at all levels, to all sorts of people.
  • We offer advice and information on anything to do with working in the creative industries.
  • We facilitate work placements for local people.
  • We run loads of events which showcase local creative talent.
  • We develop new programmes to address gaps in the market e.g. Creative Apprenticeships; and a Foundation degree in dance.

What have we achieved so far?

Since we opened the doors in 2003, more than 5,000 people have taken part in some way.

  • 250 people have gone along to our Creative Taster courses.
  • 190 people have been on our short creative courses.
  • 115 local freelancers, creative people, and young people have used our one-to-one Business Advice and Creative Careers services.
  • 30 young businesses have benefited from business training workshops.
  • 200 people have gained NVQ Level 1-3 qualifications in music, theatre, film, dance and textiles.
  • Two new NVQ Level 4 qualifications have been developed, with Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, in textiles and dance.
  • One new Foundation Degree, in dance, has been through its first stage validation with Thames Valley University.
  • Two more new Foundation Degrees are being developed.
  • There have been 8 big showcasing events.

We have helped many local creative companies to grow:

  • In the digital and new media world: Resource Productions; Paperknife Productions; Instinct Media; and SL1DE.
  • From the world of performing arts and events: Fusion Dance Company; Mess Up The Mess; Fusion Youth Dance Company; Beat Routes; Two Left Feet; Rifco Arts; Slough Youth Festival.
  • In the fashion and textiles sector: Jabeen and Tebasum Enterprise.

And we’ve given lots of local people the opportunity to do work placements and training in the creative industries sector. This includes:

  • 45 paid work placements in industry.
  • 10 students on the Dance Foundation Degree.
  • 25 students on the Music Apprenticeship Scheme.
  • 13 people on a mobile technology programme.
  • 50 people on the Creative Training for Young People programme.
  • 4,800 year 9 pupils going along to creative workshops, demonstrations and seminars.

Our efforts have been widely recognised nationally and locally. In 2004, we were proud to be named by the Municipal Journal (that’s the authoritative yearbook for Local Authorities), as a finalist in the Community Initiative of the Year.

So, what kinds of things have we been up to?

Slough Creative Academy is no ordinary skills programme. As you might expect for a project in the creative industries, our approach is innovative and engaging – and it has to be if we are to succeed in breaking down barriers, raising aspirations and challenging traditional practices. Here are some of the things we’ve been up to in the last three years:

Creative Industries Development Service –offers SME’s, freelancers and creative individuals, advice, guidance and professional development to help develop careers in the creative industries.

CT4YP (Creative Training for Young People) – a programme to train 16-25 year olds to facilitate creative training and workshops.

Asian Women in Art – a project which offered Asian women the opportunity to explore their creativity and to progress to further training or employment. It included accredited learning alongside taster workshops and mentoring support and culminated in Women in Art - an event celebrating the project’s achievements and showcasing the work of the participants.

M-Technology – a project run by Slough Young People’s Centre to help people explore commercial opportunities in the mobile phone market. Participants create unique phone branding identities for Radio-Underdog, looking at personalised information messages, visual radio broadcasting, linking mobiles to websites and other opportunities to develop a mobile phone community. The pilot programme looked at developing products to present to industry.

Radio Underdog – based at Slough Young People’s Centre - operates off a restricted service licence and has broadcast four times over the past two years. The programmes, jingles and some of the music are created by local young people.

Dance in the Park – the South East’s largest outdoor dance event attracted over 6,000 spectators and over 1,000 performers. It included newly created dance performance by local groups and schools, alongside national and international professional touring companies.

Slough Youth Festival – celebrated the creative talents and cultural work of young people and attracted an audience of over 8,000. The festival also engaged 30 young volunteers in an event management programme and gave them invaluable on-the-job experience.

Creative Horizons – an annual week-long series of events which showcases local creative talent and gives young people the chance to find out about careers in the industry. Events include Creative Careers Marketplace; Creative Careers Roadshow; Further and Higher Education Creative Fair; Creative Academy Showcasing Event; Creative Young Entrepreneurs Competition.

The 2005 Big Dance Weekend – included Slough’s first youth dance platform; an outdoor event in the town centre; and a two week residency for 8 Creative Academy students, run by the Rambert dance company, which culminated in a performance at the West Wing theatre.

Urban Action Festival - Slough’s first Urban Arts and Sports Festival embraced street art, music, sport and a new dance form using classical and urban dance, led by Rambert. The highlight of the event was an exhibition break dance jam featuring 8 of the world’s best dancers from several continents.

East @ West - the Creative Academy supported the East @ West programme at the West Wing, promoting East Asian arts. A Creative Academy student was given a placement with the West Wing to develop and support the project, developing arts and events administration and marketing skills. The Creative Academy also placed a young film-maker with a professional to document the event.

Loopjoy Music Video - a Creative Academy student had the opportunity to work on the set of a music video being shot for up-and-coming band, Loopjoy. The two day placement saw the student working both at the shoot, and behind the scenes in post-production, presenting an opportunity for her to develop her skills and gain valuable work experience.

Creative Academy Internships - Slough Borough Council departments are hosting a number of internships to give local people interested in a career in the creative industries the opportunity to develop their business, administration and creative skills.

Pen picture – Estelle Godfrey – Creative Modern Apprentice

21 year old Estelle Godfrey was doing a video production course at Slough Young People’s Centre when she heard about the opportunity to work as a Creative Modern Apprentice for Slough Borough Council. “I’m looking to get as much work experience as I can,” explains Estelle. “This seemed like a great opportunity to add to my CV.”

Estelle’s nine month apprenticeship gave her the chance to work on several of Creative Slough’s programmes – including Music4Slough where she did outreach work with local schools; and the production and editing of a video.

Feature Film development - Resource Productions and Paperknife productions have helped two local film makers to find backers, locations and distribution channels. This included a trip to the Edinburgh Film Festival to seek out further funding, promote the film concept to industry and meet with possible distributors.

Feature Film work placements – 10 Creative Academy placements were given the opportunity to work on the making of a feature film ‘Kill Kill Faster Faster’, produced by Arial Films, written and directed by Gareth Roberts and starring James Gandolfini. The film was shot in Rotterdam and gave these young people six weeks of extensive experience of working on a film set.

Pen picture – Sanjay Sharma – Creative Academy placement

“It’s so hard to get work in the film industry,” explains 27 year old Sanjay Sharma – a graduate from Slough with a degree in film and TV studies. “I had been working as a theatre manager. But I really wanted to work in film. So when the Creative Academy placement came up, I packed in my job and took up the two month work placement.”

Sanjay was one of ten local people who were selected by Creative Academy to go to Rotterdam to work on the making of the film ‘Kill Kill Faster Faster’. Sanjay worked as an assistant to Executive Producer Carlo Dusi – an experienced film industry professional. “The experience was amazing,” recalls Sanjay. “The producer asked a couple of us to produce the documentary of the film. And then the Production Coordinator quit and Carlo asked me to take over his role too”.

Sanjay explains that the Creative Academy placement has really boosted his career prospects. “I’ve now got some substantial content for my Showreel and CV. In such a competitive industry this gives me a real edge over other people.”

Since returning to the UK, Sanjay has had a month’s assignment as an assistant to Carlo Dusi and currently has a temporary contract with the BBC’s Blue Peter team. “I have no doubt that I wouldn’t be here without the opportunity which Creative Academy gave me,” confirms Sanjay.

Music4Slough - offers children and young people in Slough the chance to explore new styles of music, have a go at new instruments, create new songs, perform and make music with other young people and learn from experienced musicians leading the projects.

Mapping Creative Competencies –mapped competency and qualification routes into the different sub-sectors which make up the creative industries to help Creative Academy understand how to ensure its work met National Occupational Standards.

Original theatre:

Capricious Shifts; and The Apartment – Rambert Dance Company.

Red – Fusion Dance Company.

Sex, Drugs and Last Minute Goals – Slough Young People’s Centre.

Bhangra Bling; and Meri Christmas – Rifco Arts.

Commonsensical; and Winter’s Tale – Mess Up The Mess Theatre Company.

Mack the Knife – Thames Valley University.

International Partnership Working - working with our partners in Helsinki, the Academy has arranged visits for students to exchange knowledge, skills and showcase their talent. The first visit in July 2006 enabled 12 young people to perform at the city’s international cultural festival.

The Creative Academy Team has also visited Berlin to forge joint working on employability within the creative industries.

Feature Film Development:

Kamera – Resource Productions and Paperknife Productions

Who’s involved?

The Creative Academy is Slough’s contribution to The Last Mile project – an innovative, £16 million programme funded by the European Union’s Equal initiative. The other towns, cities and sub-regions involved in the project from the UK are Birmingham, London, Sheffield, Manchester and Cumbria and we also have international partners in Germany, Finland and Italy. Although we each have our unique issues to tackle, and different starting points, we share a common goal – to provide opportunities for minority groups to participate in the creative industries.

Each regional partner runs its own programme, appropriate to local circumstances. These programmes are also supported by a central e-commerce directory platform, which is designed to extend the market reach of creative people from minority groups, and to create new markets for their work. It’s a kind of E-Bay for minority creative talent.

Much of our success is down to the strength of the partnership which came together to develop and deliver the Creative Academy here in Slough: creative businesses, education providers and the local council are all involved. That means we’ve got a coordinated approach, which makes the most of the resources we’ve got between us. The local organisations we’re working with include:

Amersham and Wycombe College / Resource Productions
Creative Partnerships / Slough Borough Council
East Berkshire College / Slough Enterprise Hub
Fusion Dance Company / Slough Young People’s Centre
Paperknife Productions / Thames Valley University

How is it funded?

As one of the partners in Last Mile, we were awarded a grant of £2.2m from the European Social Fund’s Equal initiative. This grant will enable us to run the Creative Academy up until March 2008.

What plans do we have for the future?

We are currently working hard to attract mainstream learning & skills funding to keep the Creative Academy going once the ESF money runs out. A key part of our approach is to make sure that more and more of our work meets national vocational standards.

We’d also like to get even more employers involved - understanding what we’re doing and offering job opportunities to the Creative Academy’s participants.

And finally, we are starting to think about how we might link the Creative Academy to the proposed Skills Centre on the Slough Trading Estate.

To find out more about the Creative Academy…

Talk to:

George Kirkham

Creative Academy Manager

Slough Borough Council

Or take a look at the website:

To find out more about Creative Slough…

Read the case study or talk to:

Alison Hibbert

Cultural Strategy & Operations Manager

Slough Borough Council

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