Edinburgh College Virtual Creative Industries Employability Day a Hit
Edinburgh College students gained insight into what it takes to make it in the Creative Industries as the College hosted its annual Creative Industries Employability Day.
Over 700 students from across the College’s Creative Industries faculty tuned in for the annual Employability Day, which took place completely online for the first time in the event’s eight-year history.
Students attended the virtual event via the online platform GoToMeeting and had the opportunity to hear from over 70 industry experts in art, fashion, television, photography, computing, performing arts, music and more.
This year’s speakers included Mercury Prize-shortlisted composer and performer Anna Meredith, renowned international street photographer Nick Turpin and speakers from Rockstar North, Microsoft, National Galleries of Scotland, The Scottish Government, 23 Music Management, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Association of Photographers, Clyde 1, Cloudreach, Artlink Edinburgh & Lothians, Dabster Productions, Effini, Live Nation, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Scottish Drama Training Network, Scottish Opera, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Traverse Theatre, Whitespace and more.
In a survey of the students who attended the event, 86% said they feel they better know what career path they want to follow and 83% of attendees said they feel more confident to approach employers about jobs and work experience.
Edinburgh College Creative Industries Centre Administrator Andy Duncan said: “It’s such a great experience for the students to hear directly from people working in the industry and we really appreciate our guest speakers giving up their time to share their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm.
“This was our first attempt at an online event I think things went fairly smoothly and feedback from staff and students has been excellent so far, so I think they really got a lot out of it.”
Sue Baxendale from Scottish Opera said: “This event was a fantastic opportunity to make connections with students and other speakers – being part of a unique initiative to connect across a remarkably wide cohort of specialists and industry practitioners. This is the most interesting and empowering aspect of our pandemic digitalisation.”
Dan Brown at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop said: “The Creative Industries Employability Day provided an excellent opportunity to connect with students at the College. Pre-pandemic many students would have visited and worked at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, so it was good to let them know about how we can support them.”
