Achieve Arts Award Gold with A New Direction and Create Jobs

A New Direction, the London regional Bridge organisation, recently announced a terrific opportunity for young people to complete their Gold Arts Award. Read on for details of how to get involved...

Are you:

Aged 16 - 25 and interested in achieving Gold, but need more support and ideas?

OR

An employer, home-schooling parent or teacher working with young people who want to do Gold?

If so, get in touch!

What's on offer?

A New Direction will help with:

• Free face to face, telephone, and email support sessions comprising up to 6 drop-in sessions over one year, and personalised telephone/email support as agreed
• A full induction session to set up plans, understand the qualification and get you started
• Assessment of your portfolio, to make sure it’s ready to be submitted
• Moderation costs. Please note: we will only cover these costs if you are referring yourself as an individual, not if you are a home-school parent or employer

What is Gold Arts Award?

Arts Award inspires young people to grow their arts and leadership talents. It's creative, valuable and accessible.

Gold Arts Award is the highest Arts Award level, at Level 3 on the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF). Gold develops young people’s creativity, communication, planning, evaluation, teamwork and leadership skills. The Award is also recognised on the UCAS Tariff.

Gold has been designed for young people aged 16-25 who have a high level of commitment, interest and involvement in an art form and who wish to extend their skills further as an arts practitioner in their own right.

What will achieving Gold do for me?

The creative industries are fast evolving, and more than ever employers are seeking candidates with demonstrable skills beyond qualifications.

Arts Award Gold is a two unit qualification, based around the creation of a portfolio of work. Unit 1 enables you to develop your arts practice, create links in the creative industries and work practically on your own artistic, creative and personal development. Unit 2 is focussed on your delivery of arts leadership through a project, supporting you to develop important planning, delivery and evaluative skills as well as key leadership skills.

You can work in any art form that you choose and you can create your portfolio in any medium. The portfolio that you create is then yours to keep and will be an invaluable resource for you to use in the future, for example for job interviews or course applications. 

How will it work?

To do a Gold Arts Award you must be committed to working independently and taking responsibility for your own work. This programme will allow you time and space to work, whilst ensuring that you have the support you need to complete the Award. We won’t be offering any arts activities in session as part of the programme, but we can guide you towards suitable opportunities.

We’ll be offering a series of sessions where you will get a chance to check in, set targets, source opportunities, look at and organise your portfolio work, brainstorm ideas and gain peer support. You’ll need to be committed to attending as many support sessions as possible and sticking to deadlines and targets. Apart from that, you’ll have the freedom to choose your journey and shape your own development.

Contact information and key dates for your diary

For more information please email Louise Barnell on Louise.barnell@anewdirection.org.uk or call 0207 608 8986.

Please also register your attendance via the booking links below. Please note: the induction session on 11 October is compulsory, and you should also try and attend as many support sessions as possible. 

Induction session: 11 October 2017 (compulsory)

• Support session 1: 5 December 2017
• Support session 2: 13 February 2018
• Support session 3: 3 April 2018
• Support session 4: 5 June 2018
• Support session 5: 7 August 2018
• Support session 6: 9 October 2018

Following on from the support sessions, assessment days will also be held on each Wednesday in November 2018. These are day-long assessments to get your portfolio ready to be submitted and moderated. You’ll need to email Louise Barnell to book your place before you come along.

This blog was originally posted on 19 July and is republished with permission from A New Direction.