Apprenticeships Briefing

Offering Arts Award within Creative Apprenticeships

Information for Training Providers and Employers
‘At Peer Productions we chose to offer Gold Arts Award as part of our apprenticeship framework
as it offers unrivalled flexibility. Instead of being prescriptive it gives emerging young artists an
opportunity to take control of their own learning and take on a clear leadership role in a project of
their choice. It does not focus on predetermined outcomes but on the creative and holistic skills
needed to become a successful arts practitioner.’ Nina Lemon, Co-Artistic Director, Peer Productions

What is Arts Award?

Arts Award is a range of unique qualifications which
support young people to develop both creative and
leadership skills. There are five levels and young people
aged up to 25 can explore any arts or media form and
record their work in a portfolio.

Arts Award inspires and motivates young people

by increasing their control of their own learning
and creative development. This process builds their
confidence and helps prepare for further education
or employment. Arts Award is run by Trinity College
London in association with Arts Council England,
working with 10 English Bridge organisations, whose
role is to forge links between the cultural sector and
education. It is available throughout the UK.
Arts Award and apprenticeships
Bronze, Silver and Gold Arts Awards are regulated
qualifications on the RQF at Level 1, 2 and 3. They have
been used to add value to apprenticeships for years,
providing apprentices with a structure for extending
their cultural experience and offering additional
accreditation.
From September 2013, Silver and Gold Arts Awards
are approved and funded as the knowledge
certificate within the Community Arts framework
level 2 (Silver) and level 3 (Gold). Note: Young people
who have already achieved Silver or Gold Award can
use it as Prior Learning towards an apprenticeship
qualification at the same level.
What Arts Award offers
Rather than a curriculum or programme of study,
Arts Award provides a learning framework which the
trained Arts Award adviser and young person use to
plan their Arts Award work around their role in the
workplace. Arts Award supports on-the-job learning
by helping young people to plan and reflect on their
pathway and progress.
Arts Award offers:
cultural range all art forms, media, heritage,
technical work and popular culture
a highly flexible framework which can accredit
most arts apprenticeships and job roles and
support most young people
applied learning which suits academic and
practical young people alike
support and stimulation for leadership
and independent learning
 How do I run Arts Award?
The training provider needs to train at least one member of staff as an Arts Award adviser at Silver and/or Gold
level. Day courses are run regularly in all parts of the UK and can be booked at www.artsaward.org.uk/training
Once trained, you register your organisation as an Arts Award centre (a simple and free process) and start
delivery. Young people keep evidence of their work in a portfolio (online or offline). When their programme is
complete, you assess the work and submit for moderation. There are several types of moderation —
see www.artsaward.org.uk/moderation

Train as an Register your Run Arts Award Assess portfolios and

Arts Award adviser organisation as an around the apprentice book moderation
Arts Award role
centre

After training, a wide range of support is available, including local Arts Award surgeries, regional events, a helpline
and online resources.

Silver and Gold Arts Award at a glance

Silver and Gold Arts Award both have two units of work, each Arts Award unit has three or four parts with tasks
around a real situation — including taking part, critical response, research and leadership.

Silver Arts Award

Unit 1 — arts practice and pathways Unit 2 — arts leadership
(five credits) (five credits)
Arts challenge Plan a leadership project
set yourself a challenge to develop your skills (individually or as a team)
Arts review Deliver the project
review arts events & experiences Review the project
Arts research
find out about arts provision in your area and/or
pathways into the arts

Gold Arts Award (16 UCAS tariff points)

Unit 1 — personal arts development Unit 2 — arts project leadership
(eight credits) (seven credits)
Arts practice Plan an arts project
extend your arts skills and work with other creatives with a public outcome, taking responsibility for all
Arts development activity, and considering audience, health & safety etc
get experience of the arts world through training, Deliver the project
volunteering, shadowing etc Review the project
Arts research
research more advanced practitioners, review arts work
and set your own work in a wider context
Arts opinion
research and publish your opinion on an arts issue
You can get an overview of all five awards plus qualification information and costs in the Arts Award Guide
at www.artsaward.org.uk/guide
 The benefits of running Arts Award
Benefits for young people
Arts Award encourages young people to apply their learning and reflect on their experience so it fits well with
learning on the job. Young people get a holistic experience of the arts sector, including arts production, reviewing,
research, and project delivery. All these activities can be linked to their role as a community arts apprentice, but
they can include their personal interests in creating their Arts Award plan, thus increasing motivation and
independent learning.
Arts Award is widely recognised across the cultural sector so helps young people get jobs.
‘It’s been such a life changer being part of the Creative Jobs Programme and doing Arts Award. It
enabled me to open up a number of networks and get great experience!’
Arts Award Gold Award achiever, Royal Opera House

Benefits for employers

Arts Award encourages and reinforces practical learning in real situations, encouraging apprentices to think, take
responsibility and develop leadership skills.

‘My Gold Arts Project Leadership unit was a good way of building my project management skills:
planning and analysing a project; budgeting and financial management; liaising and interacting with
customers and different types of people — phone and written communication; building marketing
plans; risk assessments.’
Jon Tebble, Community Arts Apprentice (level 3)

Our three year impact study, run by London Southbank University, reports that Arts Award can accelerate
young people’s confidence, learning and achievement — creating more effective employees:
➡➡ The independent nature of the learning was deemed to enable more innovation and creativity encouraging
students to ‘think outside the box’ and ‘to think for themselves’. Being able to pursue their own interests
was a hugely motivating factor for young people.
➡➡ Arts Award promotes reflection and ‘learning to learn’... providing an inclusive way of structuring learning,
which can engage diverse students on different levels. Furthermore, Arts Award appeared to enable
students to exceed the expectations of other staff members.

Benefits for training providers

Arts Award is already embedded within
the Creative Employment Programme
Traineeships so you can train assessors to
deliver Bronze, Silver and Gold and offer
Arts Award within both Traineeships and
Apprenticeships.

Benefits to assessors
Training to be an Arts Award adviser adds
value to your CV and professional offer, and
many organisations use freelance Arts Award
advisers. Arts Award offers you a creative
and flexible way of delivering the Knowledge
Certificate.
Many aspects of Silver or Gold Arts Award
can also contribute to the Community Arts
Apprenticeship Certificate so the acquisition
of knowledge and skills is closely aligned. For
example, a live event organised for the Gold
Arts Award leadership project could also be
used for Design a Project in the Community
Arts Certificate.
 How does Arts Award fit into the cultural sector?
Arts Award is recognised and run by a wide range of arts and cultural organisations, including arts centres, galleries,
libraries, music projects, museums and theatres, and is widely used as a framework for work-related learning, work
experience and internships.
York Theatre Royal uses Bronze for week long holiday projects, Silver for work experience and Gold to support
young people to direct youth theatre shows and run their own company.

‘Arts Award gives real arts leadership experience that is transferable, and can be demonstrated at interviews the
moment the young person opens their portfolio. Young people learn to plan, deliver and evaluate projects in such
detail that the next generation of young arts leaders is going to be outstanding!’
Kate Plumb, Youth Theatre Director, York Theatre Royal

Arts Council England encourages its National Portfolio Organisations to run or support the programme and funds
the regional Bridge organisations to promote Arts Award on the ground.

Arts Award Supporter is a Arts Award

badging scheme for cultural Voice is an online
organisations which offer magazine run by
activities young people can young people who
access when doing their award. are doing or have
This popular scheme has built achieved awards,
support for Arts Award in and bring a fresh
organisations which don’t run accredited learning but do want to take on the arts world.
help young people engage with the arts world.

Trinity works closely with the Creative Employment Programme to support

more arts employers to use Arts Award to accredit apprenticeships and
internships.

‘We have implemented Gold Arts Award as the knowledge certificate in our apprentice’s Level 3 Community Arts
framework. This has been fantastic for us as an employer because the practical nature of the award means that
the young person is developing relevant skills to support us as an organisation and the modules are quite large
which allows us to focus on just six areas rather than lots of little ones.’
Unit Twenty Three, Diss (CEP grant recipient)

Get in touch!
◗◗ If you’re working with organisations which have received CEP funding and would like to include Arts Award
◗◗ If you’d like to discuss how to introduce Arts Award within your training provider role
◗◗ Contact artsawardenquiries@trinitycollege.org.uk or check www.artsaward.org.uk/apprenticeships