institute for employment studies

Creative Graduates Creative Futures

For graduates

Thank you to all those who kindly completed the survey questionnaire and the follow-up email survey. Your participation has been very important to this research.

Your participation has:

• improved understanding about the value of higher education in the creative arts
• improved understanding about graduates’ contribution to culture, education, the economy and in society as a whole
• improved understanding about how graduates move from their degree courses into work of all kinds, and how they support and develop their creative practice
• helped employers and higher education understand how they can improve their support for creative graduates.

The results will directly influence course design and higher education planning and inform future students about ‘real’ career choices.

• What did the first survey find?

Helpful links

In undertaking the research we have been asked by several graduates about organisations that could be helpful in their career development, we have therefore put together a list of organisations who support artists, designers, makers, photographers and film-makers. If you have suggestions for any other organisations to add to the list, perhaps an organisation that has been particularly helpful to you, please contact Wil Hunt.

• directory of key organisations (pdf)

Other research

You might be interested in the findings of a previous study of creative graduates undertaken over ten years ago: Destinations and Reflections: Careers of British Art, Craft and Design Graduates.

This important study was one of the first to explore the fragmented nature of the job market and patterns of work in the creative industries sector. It was undertaken in 1998-99 on behalf of a partnership of 14 institutions and involved nearly 2,000 graduates (graduating between 1993 and 1996) who were surveyed about their higher education experiences and their early careers.

• Graduates expected a multifaceted work situation, anticipating changing work patterns, and early career paths were complex often involving working in several jobs simultaneously. Graduates worked across a wide range of sectors and jobs, and but working in the education sector was relatively common. However, some time after graduation few were involved in work that was not relevant to art and design and there was a marked tendency for graduates to converge back to art and design work.
• Whilst short periods of unemployment were relatively common during their early careers, the majority had experienced a period of full-time permanent work since graduating. Art and design graduates have a high tendency for working freelance, with 42 per cent of graduates having some form of self-employment since graduating. Indicators of unemployment within the first few months after graduating appear disheartening but they overstate the problem and don’t take account of the time taken to establish a career or start a small creative enterprise – involving working on their portfolios and making contacts that will lead to jobs, commissions or freelance work. At least 18 months after graduating, less than 5 per cent were unemployed, and none had been continuously unemployed.
• As graduates progressed through their careers, there was a tendency to move through voluntary and unpaid work experience and jobs where they were underemployed towards more full-time and permanent employment. There was also a tendency to move towards more satisfying jobs with the potential to be creative and develop.
• The undergraduate experience developed attributes sought by employers – such as initiative, creativity, flexibility, independent and critical thought, self-confidence and self-reliance – but there were concerns that their courses had not equipped them with necessary team-working and interpersonal skills, written communication and numeracy skills and the ability for self-promotion. There were also concerns about the lack of industry-facing interaction during their time at university or college – such as placements, external projects and employer visits. Involvement in further study or training was therefore common, and was used to enhance job prospects. This further learning involved both postgraduate level study such as Masters and PGCE courses, and also more general interest courses.