If you’re thinking about starting on a creative career path, digital and creative apprenticeships are a perfect place to begin. Read more in our guide below.
What is a Creative Apprenticeship?
A creative apprenticeship is an apprenticeship which falls into the creative sector. Many people assume that you can only do an apprenticeship in construction or engineering, but in reality, this is far from the truth. An apprenticeship is a job where you spend part of the time in the role, and part of the time off-the-job training with a training provider. These are a great way into the creative industry as creative jobs often require a practical skill or vocation. For example, some creative sectors and industries in which you could do an apprenticeship include architecture, health and beauty, music production, advertising and marketing, visual and special effects, digital design, interior design, fashion and textiles, hairdressing and heritage and environment.
Creative apprenticeships often fall into the arts and culture sector, which is a notoriously difficult industry to get into. Doing a creative apprenticeship is a great way to get experience in this industry without having the right qualifications before you start.
Who is a Creative or Digital Apprenticeship For?
Anybody over 16 can do an apprenticeship at any time. They are not just for 16-18 year olds, and many apprenticeships are open to adults. One of the greatest benefits and advantages of doing an apprenticeship is that the entry requirements are set by the employer, which means that there are no specific qualifications or experience needed to begin an apprenticeship in a new industry. If you are thinking about entering the creative or digital sector without any experience, a design apprenticeship or creative apprenticeship could be the perfect place to start.
A creative or digital apprenticeship is best suited to somebody who has a natural creative flair and wants to work in a practical and hands-on role. If the role is a digital apprenticeship, you will need to have a passion for online creating. Even if you don’t have professional experience, an employer will want to see what you do digitally in your personal life, whether taking photos, editing videos or writing online content.
Creative Apprenticeship Examples
Some of our top picks for creative, design and digital apprenticeships include:
Design Apprenticeships
- Architecture: Level 6 Architectural Assistant and Level 7 Architect with the Royal Institute for British Architects. These apprenticeships are a fantastic opportunity to work with a global architecture professional body.
- Interior Design: Furniture Design Advanced Apprenticeship.
- Marketing: Digital Marketing Apprenticeship, Marketing Manager Degree Apprenticeship, Marketing and Social Media Apprenticeship.
Creative Apprenticeships
- Fashion: Fashion Studio Assistant and Fashion and Textiles Product Technologist
- Music: Organ builder, Creative Venue Technician and Acoustics Technician
- Illustration: Storyboard Artists and Junior 2D Artist Visual Effect
Digital Apprenticeships
- Creative Digital Design Professional Level 6
- Digital Engineering Technician Level 3
- Digital Community Manager Level 4
To browse all 570 apprenticeships standards, have a look at our search tool. You can browse via one of the 15 career routes and find information on trailblazers, apprenticeship length, salary and qualifications.
Advice on Finding a Creative Apprenticeship
We hope that reading this blog has inspired you to start a creative apprenticeship. As you can probably tell the creative industry is very broad and stretches across a whole range of crafts and skills. Knowing where to start can be slightly overwhelming.
Firstly, decide what part of the creative industry you would like to work in.
Research the area of that industry that interests you most and some of the jobs available in it.
Once you have picked a job or role, use our apprenticeship standards search tool to find the relevant apprenticeships available.
Then when you have found the right apprenticeship standard, you can begin searching for employers that offer that apprenticeship.
