Castlebrae offers the National 5 Skills for Work: Creative Industries course as an alternative to other certificated qualifications in creative subjects at National 5 and Higher. The course is mainly offered to S4, 5 and S6 pupils and takes place within the Art & Design department for four periods per week across the full academic session.
Background
The school offers qualifications in creative areas in either drama or art and design. It recognised a need to cultivate in learners the skills and qualities valued by employers, and to create opportunities to develop enterprise and entrepreneurialism.
Approach
Learners participate in practical activities within the area of creating artwork for an exhibition; and over the last few years, the exhibition has been on display at St Andrews University, as part of our professional partnership with Transmodernalising Modern Languages.
All our students need show their understanding of the four units, and provide practical evidence created for the Creative Project unit.
To generate the evidence required for successful completion of the course, learners used the Creative Industries: Skills Development, Creative Industries: The Creative Process and Creative Industries: Creative Project units as the basis from which to work as ceramic artists in our ceramic studio space.
The Creative Industries: Skills Development unit allows learners to hone their skills in a variety of creative areas including learning many ceramic techniques . This single project enables learners to generate sufficient evidence for all three units.
Their involvement with employers from a range of creative industries gives a contextual starting point for the Creative Industries: An Introduction unit, and learners are able to draw directly from their experience of site visits and interactions with visiting speakers.
Partnership arrangements
Castlebrae Community High School partnership with TMLhttps://www.transnationalmodernlanguages.ac.uk/
as well as with numerous employers and businesses in the creative industries – gives learners experience of working in professional environments, and the opportunity to learn directly from creative practitioners.
Employability skills
In addition to practical skills, there is a clear focus on timekeeping, appearance, customer care, and health and safety considerations. Learners are encouraged to have a positive attitude to learning new things. Learners are also encouraged to develop an ability to respond and act upon feedback and to evaluate their own performance and creative output.
Benefits for learners and centres
The National 5 Creative Industries course allows the learner to be fully involved in the creative process and gives them the opportunity to develop valuable skills in a workplace environment.
The freedom and flexibility offered by this course, and CCHS’s ability to deliver it using partnerships allows learners to get out of school and visit real creative workplaces.
The course gives learners an insight into areas of the creative industries they may not have heard about – and therefore new ideas about employment or further study options. It is an ideal vehicle for the promotion of enterprise, employability skills and experiences, which are a key priority for senior management and the wider school.
Castlebrae Community Campus 