artybirdcarnforth

Creative Business Skills

Introduction

We are pleased to announce that we are now able to offer two levels of Creative Business Skills which will include and be accredited as equivalent to the City & Guilds Employability levels 2 and 3. The courses are particularly suitable for students studying a textile course with ArtyBird and wanting to develop their craft as a successful business. City & Guilds Employability Level 1 is aimed at people aspiring to be employed in a craft industry and is a little elementary for the more experienced student typically studying textiles with ArtyBird. For this reason we have decided not to provide a course at this level, though its content is used as guidance in the recommended enrolment requirements for level 2.

There is no particular start date for the course. New students may begin as soon as they enrol but must complete each level within a time limit from enrolment.

Enrolment Requirements

Students enrolling for the Level 2 Business Skills should have the following basic competence.

• Create formal and informal documents on MS Word
• Create simple tables of data in MS Excel documents
• Resesarch topics using the Internet
• Be reasonably confident in giving brief formal presentations to a few colleagues.

In addition, the City & Guilds level 1 syllabus includes a basic introduction to how businesses operate and market surveys.

As virtually all of the work is conducted by computer and on line, all students must have their own computer, broadband, email and a webcam. The software used for the course material will be Microsoft Office and therefore this is software requirement for all students. All doucments will be issued to you as pdf files so you will also need Adobe Acrobat Reader. Finally, much of the leaning dialogue will be conducted using our virtual college - Huddle. More details will be provided upon enrolment.

Assessment

There are four different "deliverables" by which you will be assesed on the course.

• Textual reports in MS Word, which are used both to communicate your work and results to your tutor and to build your business competance file for future reference.
• Graphic material incorporating images, for promotional work. These would normally be produced on MS Word but there is no objection to students using alternative preferred software such as Illustrator or CorelDRAW as long as the finished work is submitted as a pdf. The only documents which will be accepted for assessment are MS Office or pdf files.
• Slide shows and presentations using MS Powerpoint.
• A spoken presentation with visual aids either in person or as a video recording.

The courses are available on-line only, and are available from 1 September 2011.


The cost for the courses will be £700 per year plus £105 C&G registration and administration fees. UK students can pay by 10x£75 monthly installments plus C&G fee up front. Fees are reviewed very year.