The Creative Alliance schedule of training programmes are designed by creative professionals to help give your career a kick start or provide you with skills to progress further in the industry. Our practical approach allows us to offer highly relevant showcasing opportunities and bespoke business development training.
training programmes
// Weekend Studio Lighting Workshop
27th/ 28th September 2008
Are you a keen photographer who wants to learn more about studio lighting?
Want to experiment with fashion, portraiture or still life studio photography, but don't have your own equipment?
Creative Alliance is proud to present a two day introductory course that will take participates through through various studio and lighting technique studio lighting set up
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: Creative Alliance training rooms, Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham
Cost: £180
Tutor: Richard Battye; www.riverstudio.co.uk
Professional practical tuition from an industry professional
Small group (no more than 8 students)
Lunch/Refreshments provided
Digital SLR cameras available (if required)
Please note: a basic photographic understanding is required to undertake in this course. If you are unsure, please contact us.
For more information call Zara or Anna on 0121 224 7308 or enquire through the 'get in touch' section of the website
// 14 – 19 Creative Diploma Proposal
14th April 2008
Creative Alliance is uniquely placed amongst creative organisations to work at the interface between schools and the creative and cultural industries. We have a network of people with extensive experience of working with young people and with schools and can link schools and young people to our extensive network of industry links. This will provide both schools and young people with realistic expectations of, appropriate and credible experience with and potential entry into the sector.
Creative Alliance is fast gaining its own impressive reputation and is becoming recognised in its sector as one of the most effective programmes for new and emerging creative professionals to develop their creative content in business. This is due to its unique ‘practice-led’ approach.
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This approach;
- focuses on the creative practice of making and showcasing work and enfolds the business and education within this
- means that the development training is absolutely bespoke, relevant and up-to-date
- is delivered by established practising creative professionals who bring their own creativity into the design and delivery of the training.
Creative Alliance has worked hard to build strong relationships with industry and employers to ensure that all learning is relevant, appropriate and credible;
Relavant: It is based on research with employers and addresses;
Appropraite: models of learning are developed to reflect the sophistication and complexity of the sector.
Credible: bespoke and tailored programming and real links to industry and employers
What we do?
Over the past two and half years over 700 hundred learners have come through the doors accessing a wealth of advice and support, with 350 benefiting from the full 60+ hours After Hours, Morning After or Makers and Shapers programmes, which includes training in commissioning processes, pricing policies, portfolio building, identification of supply chains, evaluation, IPR and copyright, presentation skills, H&S, business start-up, realising new income streams, curatorial skills, project design, project management and marketing and a further 124 working on or towards practical creative qualificatons at levels 1 and 2.
These ‘hard’ skills are supported by a whole range of essential ‘soft’ skills including confidence building, negotiation skills, communication and interpersonal skills, self-reflection and self-directed learning. Skill development is delivered in a context of ‘live practice’: real-time making, exhibitions, performance showcases, events and projects.
As mentioned above we have also recently embarked on a new contract with Creative College to deliver level 1 and 2 practical programmes and have a commitment to deliver 124 outputs to objective 3 unemployed people (19+) between Nov 07 and May 08. This contract has specifically given us the capacity to develop and trial this new range of services, write schemes of work and learner handbooks, engage and test working relationships with delivery staff that are practicing experts in their field, train and develop staff to fill any gaps identified, continue to test our quality and IV processes and procedures and build a robust relationship with the awarding body and external verification team, all of this puts us in a great position to quickly get contracts up and running.
Evidence of Sucess
Our dedicated team work hard to build a strong, positive learner working environments and have proven results working with a range of client groups, including BME groups and individuals, hardest to reach, unemployed and employed CPD. Our current retention rate on existing accredited programming is exceptionally high ranging from 100% achievement on our level 3 programme to at it's lowest 40% on a recent practical level 1 contemporary music qualification, but on average we hit 75.3%.
How will we ensure quality?
Having previously held contracts with the LSC and being an NCFE, NOCN and ABC Awards accredited centre we have a full range of quality, administrative and financial recording and control mechanisms in place.
- We work to the Common Inspection Framework, carrying our internal self-assessments and have also been externally inspected by the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) who found the effectiveness of the provision to be good.
- We are an accredited training and assessment centre with ABC Awarding Body and during inspection for maintenance of approved centre status paperwork and procedures were reported to be exemplary.
- We also have a part time Quality Assurance Manager whose role and responsibility is to ensure that we comply with the requirements of the awarding body, ALI and any other contractual quality assurance requirements.
- We have a robust internal verification strategy and utilise this and our highly effective system for evaluation of learner feedback to continuously improve and develop our programmes.
- Through our system of internal verification and quality assurance we continuously monitor the provision in terms of the effectiveness of induction, tuition, learner support and assessment, including observation of sessions, quality of paperwork and feedback from learners in a variety of ways including interviewing them.
- Regular staff appraisals ensure that the quality, skills and ability of staff is reviewed and attended to on an ongoing basis.
- Paperwork and other systems are regularly reviewed for possible improvement and we regularly work with an external business improvement consultant to identify areas which could be further developed.
- During programmes tutors/assessors will continuously monitor the needs and progress of individuals
- We have systems in place for the monitoring and collation of all records as well as secure arrangements for the storage of learner data including qualification assessment information.
- Systems exist for financial management and control which have been thoroughly tested and both internal and external audits are conducted on an annual basis.
How do we do it?
Our aim is to offer creative enterprise learning, developed and delivered by practicing creatives, who run their own business and are therefore both informed by industry but also as employers.
What is the Offer?
We appreciate that no two schools taking part in this pilot, and subsequently in this programme when it is rolled out further, will have the same networks, contacts or facilities. Staffing, experience and budgets will also vary substantially from institution to institution, so we have worked hard to identify a range of services which could perfectly compliment and enrich the schools planned Creative Diploma programme. These range from fully accredited short courses in a multitude of mediums, to interventions and seminars, as well as ‘special events’ such as industry guest visits, staff CPD, and task driven work experience placements. We intend for these services to be available both offsite in our city centre training suites, but could also where possible/practical take place within the school environment.
Please find additional information regarding these services below, but for further information or to request a meeting to discuss further please contact our office on 0121 224 7308 or email annie@creativealliance.org.uk
Short Accredited Course – practical creative skills in the following area/mediums – NCFE Level 1 and 2
- Digital Photography
- Music Technology / Music Management / Music Performance
- Drama and Performance
- Art and Design
- Design and Digital Media
- Creative Craft, including Fashion and Jewellery
Any of the above can be broken down in to individual units
Industry specific seminars and guest speakers, either offsite at training suite or workplace or visit to school
Staff CPD
Work Experience Placements – offsite, organised and facilitated by CA. These placement would be;
Many small creative businesses in the region cannot practically facilitate block work experience placements at the volume potentially required by these diplomas. These ‘Virtual Placements’ would be informed by the employers, with briefs, visits and real world clients.
Industry Briefs – Sector specific group or individual task briefs, with or with guidance notes, timescales and deadlines.
Potential additional Bolt-on’s;
Real world, pseudo, or virtual client meetings.
Simulation job interviews
1:2:1 Career guidance meetings
Virtual or face to face industry tutorials
// Morning After
Cycle Complete, Please register interest
Morning After is a new initiative, offering support and development opportunities to more established artists in the region. It has three distinctive and individual strands in Visual Arts, Photography and Participatory art forms, which over the 12 months will offer 9 bespoke training opportunities.
Training Location: Creative Alliance's Custard Factory Training Suite
// NCFE Photography (Level 1 & 2)
Cycle Complete. Please register interest
Have you always longed to make proper use of your digital camera, stop cropping off heads and taking blurry pictures of the family, or do you just fancy learning a new creative skill?
Well this could be your chance to gain an accredited qualification in digital photography and learn basic composition and framing techniques, uploading, saving and backing up of images, digital manipulation, including cropping, colour balancing and resizing images, printing and presenting images in a portfolio and creative camera techniques.
Course led by Birmingham based photographer Stuart Whipps, and assisted by the Dan Bosworth
Eligibility Criteria:
In order to take part in these FREE training opportunities you must be…
+ Aged 19 or over
+ Unemployed or not working
+ Living in Birmingham, Solihull, The Black Country, Hereford or Worcestershire
+ Able to commit to 8 full days of training
Delivery Location: Creative Alliance's Custard Factory Training Suite
// NCFE Creative Craft (Level 1 & 2)
Cycle Complete. Please register interest
Are you looking to develop a hobby or craft into an income generator, save cash by making your own personalised gifts or even explore your own creativity? Well this could be your chance to gain an accredited qualification in creative craft and learn techniques in paper making, gift card/ gift box design and construction, Silver and Gold clay jewellery making and other experimental crafts.Delivery Location: Creative Alliance's Custard Factory Training Suite
// NCFE Contemporary Music Practice (Level 1)
Cycle Complete. Please register interest
Are you in a struggling band or a frustrated solo artist in need of some direction?
This unique performance training opportunity gives you access to a professional recording studio located in the heart of the Birmingham creative quarter, with feedback from experienced music professionals, rehearsal appraisal and a showcase opportunity.
Music experience is essential due to the nature of the programme you must have a basic level of musical ability which you want to develop. Bands and groups welcome, but total beginners need not apply.
Delivery Location: Creative Alliance's Custard Factory Training Suite
// NCFE Music Technology (Level 1 & 2)
Cycle Complete, Please register interest
Whether you’re musically gifted or not this introduction to music technology gives you access to a professional city centre recording studio to develop a basic understanding of industry standard recording platforms, midi sequencing, mixing and mastering skills, understanding and use of studio technology, opening, saving and backing up of created files.
This unique training opportunity will give you access to a bespoke Mac training suite and professional recording studio, located in the heart of Birmingham’s Creative quarter.
Eligibility Criteria:
In order to take part in these FREE training opportunities you must be…
+ Aged 19 or over
+ Unemployed or not working
+ Living in Birmingham, Solihull, The Black Country, Hereford or Worcestershire
+ Able to commit to 8 full days of training
Delivery Location: Creative Alliance's Custard Factory Training Suite