Learn how to build, push, develop, and master your creative skills in this two-year course!
It provides an opportunity for students who have ambitions and aspirations of a career in the creative industries and arts to explore, develop and test their creativity within a qualification structure that is stimulating and demanding. Students will have the opportunity to develop transferable skills, making them versatile and employable individuals whilst learning the importance and application of ethical and sustainable design principles; as well as developing a rich contextual knowledge and understanding of their developing creative practice and specialist vocational area.
You will be introduced to and will develop skills using a wide range of materials including traditional materials, techniques and processes. Also encouraged is the exploration of some more non-traditional techniques that you may not be so familiar with.
- Fashion and Textiles
- Printmaking
- 3D printing
- Digital Art
- Sculpture
- Ceramics
- Drawing
- Painting
- Metal work
- Photography
We embrace learning and making mistakes whilst we work together to identify your future goals in the first year. In the second year, we challenge and direct your learning to help you reach your individual goals.
Students leaving the course will have gained the skills, industry requirements and a portfolio of work that will enable them to apply for universities, apprenticeships or creative roles in industry.
Throughout the world, the creative industries are booming. In the UK alone they contribute more than £100 billion to the economy and employ more than 2 million people. This number is growing faster than any other part of the economy. As working practices and technologies evolve, jobs in this sector will be some of the most resilient in the face of increasing automation. They encompass a huge diversity of roles, employers and skills. At their heart, however, they involve skills that are highly useful for study at higher education level and are increasingly in demand from employers.
What you'll learn
This course is the UAL Level 3 Diploma and Extended Diploma in Creative Practice: Art, Design and Communication.
This course will broaden your art and design skills and build confidence in working across specialisms such as fine art, graphic design, illustration, fashion and textiles, metalwork and photography, with the aim of writing a project proposal for your final project, in a specialism of your interest.
The full two-year qualification contains the following units:
The Creative Process: Students will develop an in-depth understanding of the creative process as a creative tool used and adapted by professionals across a full spectrum of creative practices. Students will explore the stages of the creative process through a practical learning journey where they will apply their knowledge of the creative process to generate ideas for creative pursuit.
Developing Creative Practice: Requires students to gain knowledge of a range of 2D, 3D and 4D creative practices and explore and use materials, methods, techniques and processes in a safe and professional manner. Students will then apply this learning to their developing creative practice, enabling them to refine their vocational ambitions.
Responding to a Set Brief: This synoptic unit requires students to draw on learning acquired during Units 1 and 2 in the resolution of a creative problem outlined by a set brief. Students will learn how to manage and fulfil the expectations of an exciting and industry-relevant project brief. They will be required to propose, plan, experiment, explore, develop, produce and present an original solution in response to the brief.
Researching a Specialist Industry Practice: Students are required to dive into the creative industries, identifying the sectors and specific roles that ignite their vocational ambitions. Students are required to explore how the creative process is adapted and used by existing practitioners within their chosen field, cementing their learning through the application of specialist practice theory to practical activities. This unit offers students the chance to clarify and define their creative career intentions and focus on their future development and progression routes.
Specialist Technical Skills Development: Allows students the opportunity to fully interrogate the materials, processes, safety measures and technical skills associated with a specialist practice. Students are expected to use these skills to investigate and identify creative solutions to problems and produce specialist outcomes that reference personal and contextual influences. Students will also gain a developed understanding of ethical design principles, principles essential for progression into their chosen specialist industry.
Specialist Creative Outcome: This synoptic unit requires students to draw on learning from across the entire qualification to propose, plan and fully realise a self-directed, individualised, specialist practice project. Students will be required to identify and propose a thematic enquiry, evidencing a clear grounding in a selected specialist practice and knowledge of a specified audience or consumer. Students will apply the materials, methods, techniques and processes associated with their specialist practice and develop industry-relevant outcomes that support progression towards a career in the creative industries.
How you'll learn and be assessed
Students will also have the opportunity to develop transferrable skills, making them versatile and employable individuals whilst learning the importance and application of ethical and sustainable design principles, as well as developing a rich contextual knowledge and understanding of their specialist vocational area and individualised visual language.
Sustainability and creative practice
This qualification encourages all creative practitioners to be sustainable in the work they produce and the impact their activity has on our environment.
Contemporary creative practitioners do not only make ‘things’ or try to minimise the material impact of their own work. They also lead opinion, and design the world we inhabit, from our built environments to our systems, from the clothes we wear to the choices we make in digital spaces. They develop our cultural reference points and social debates.
Students are encouraged to develop their own awareness of this agenda, find their own definitions and propose solutions for how to weave sustainability throughout their creative practice and engagement with the wider world.
UAL Awarding Body believes in transformative education. They design and award creative qualifications that empower and inspire educators to help students reach their potential.
UAL Awarding Body is regulated by Ofqual, Qualifications Wales and CCEA Regulation and currently offers qualifications in Art and Design, Fashion Business and Retail, Creative Media Production and Technology, Music Performance and Production and Performing and Production Arts. They are also the UK’s leading provider of the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. Their qualifications have high retention and achievement rates because they are flexible, responsive and relevant to industry needs, and facilitate student progression.
Progression
This qualification is designed to support students in developing a portfolio of work which may assist them in making applications to appropriate entry-level roles, training programmes, and apprenticeships of self-employment. It also supports students in progressing onto further and higher education courses, either in their own right or alongside other appropriate qualifications.
Students develop the skills, competencies and knowledge that will lead to a successful future in the creative industries, or the many industries that require creative talent to support their businesses or enterprises. Students regularly progress to a wide range of careers, including the fashion and textiles industry.
Entry requirements
You need to have 4 GCSEs at Grade 4 or above including English and maths, with a keen interest and evidence in the subject (example of work or portfolio).
