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Profiles in Success: Bath Spa University

Bath Spa University is transforming the way creative arts students prepare for the world of work, with a radical approach to business collaboration, interdisciplinary learning and technology deployment.

The university’s revolutionary approach to teaching and learning, called Artswork, is augmented by its status as an Apple Authorised Training Centre for Education (AATCe), enabling it to offer students high-quality training and certification in the same Apple professional applications used by many of the world’s most creative companies.

“Becoming an AATCe absolutely fits the innovative aims of our Artswork initiative”, explains Adam Powell, Artswork Manager at Bath Spa University. “We know how important it is for our students and staff to be equipped with the skills they need to thrive in the creative workplace”.

Bath Spa became one of the UK’s new teaching-led universities in 2005. As a designated Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) in the creative industries, it gained special Government funding for the five-year Artswork programme in order to enhance the employability and self-employability of its graduates by developing innovative, practical models for arts education.

Artswork is designed principally around the needs of students of Graphic Interactive Multimedia, Commercial Music and Creative Music Technology, Creative Writing, Fashion and Textiles, Performing Arts and English courses. The project provides six high specification learning laboratories, each featuring state-of-the-art facilities, where students work directly with practitioners in a process of formal and informal knowledge exchange.

“Rather than just exporting students into agencies and employers on work placements, we believe we can make a longer-lasting positive impact by importing expertise”, says Powell.

“We’ve had an intensive four-day producer residency, for example, where we’ve torn up the timetable and music students have had the chance to work with professional producers on real-world problems — from sound creation to mastering tracks. The labs are equipped with all the necessary Apple tools to do that”.

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