Artist's Resource Pack

So how do you get started and begin to work out what might be out there for you? Or if you’ve been working in one field for a while, how can you look around and see what else is out there? Whether you are just starting out, are an established artist or arts worker, are mid-career or simply you just fancy a change, there are loads of places that can give you a view on what might be available.

There are plenty of sites to give you an overview of the kind of work out there and also to help you assess your skills and interests to work out what is right for you.

Learndirect Advice helps whether you want to develop new skills, improve your job prospects or change jobs completely. On their site you can

• search for a course (they have over 900,000 courses listed)
• find out about jobs and careers (they have over 700 profiles of different jobs and also a good features section with more indepth information)
• look at their interactive careers area to match your skills and interests to a job and find out about making decisions
• and get help and advice on funding, childcare and much more!

You can also speak to an advisor who can give you tailored careers advice - either email, book a call back at a time to suit you or phone 0800 100 900 – and they have bi-lingual advisors speaking nine different languages too.

If you follow this link you will be taken out of the artist’s resource site and to the Learndirect Advice site (www.learndirect.co.uk).

If you are a young person, you can contact Connexions, the government’s information and advice site for young people. They have sections on work, careers, money and lots more, with loads of quizzes and interactive parts on the site. They also have disability content on lots of areas too, giving you individual case studies and inspiration.

If you follow this link you will be taken out of the artist’s resource site and to the Connexions site (www.connexions-direct.com ).

There are lots of other ways of contacting Connexions. You can also phone them on a freephone number (Tel: 080 800 13 2 19), email them from the website, text them (on 07766 4 13 2 19) or call them from your mobile, give them your number and they will phone you back. You can also minicom them on their textphone number (08000 968 336). Their advisers work from 8am to 2am each day.

If you have a degree, you can check out the Prospects site. This lists jobs for graduates (and lots of support for people wanting to get jobs). If you follow this link you will be taken out of the artist’s resource site and to the Prospects site (www.prospects.ac.uk).

If you want to find out more about working in advertising, crafts, cultural heritage, design, music, performing, literary or the visual arts, check out an organisation called Creative & Cultural Skills. This is the lead organization linking training and skills development in these fields to the employment industry. If you follow this link you will be taken out of the artist’s resource site and to the Creative & Cultural Skills site (www.ccskills.org.uk). Check out the ‘Our Industries’ section for more information on each area, and the ‘Your Stories’ section for case studies (including some disabled people).

There is a different organisation doing the same role for the Audio Visual Industries (broadcast, film, video, interactive media and photo imaging). This is Skillset and if you follow this link you will be taken out of the artist’s resource site and to the Skillset site (www.skillset.org). Check out the ‘Careers’ and the ‘Training’ sections.