Fifty delegates and speakers gathered to hear presentations and case studies looking at the engagement of arts organisations with work-related learning in general and the Creative and Media Diploma in particular. The event was introduced by Robert West of the National Skills Academy, who explained recent changes in Government policy towards qualifications in general.

Sam Chappell-Winnington and Philippa Price from Long Road spoke about their work with the Junction, while Hannah Bicknell and Anna Newman gave an overview of their work on the Performance Unit of the CMD. Laurie Miller-Zutchi from Seachange Arts and Simon Bates from the Junction gave the employer’s eye view, giving and insight into just how much arts organisations can do to support and work with CMD students. Tom O’Connor from The Exchange gave a wider view on Education Business Partnerships and how the arts sector could fit into the wider picture. Helen Thorn gave an outline of the project and Catherine Rose summed up the key findings of the project so far.

The event also proved to be a useful networking event among arts professionals with relatively few opportunities for meeting together.

Resources from the project were distributed on memory pens. The resources will be available to NSA members from early September at www.nsa-ccskills.co.uk. The joint offer documents prepared by the Employer Focus Groups in Norwich and Cambridge will be available more widely, including through participating organisations’ websites.

Arts Inform would like to acknowledge the work on this project done by Frances Morrell, Catherine Sutton and Katherine Hill, and also to thank all the speakers, chairs and contributors to the event.

Click here for further information on this project.