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Careers support for students

Illustration of a small child standing in a gallery
Illustration of a small child standing in a gallery
Image by Gracie Dahl

UAL’s Careers and Employability team can support you to make a living doing what you love.

Our team of employability educators provide regular extra-curricular employability support. We believe that everyone should be able to achieve their creative ambitions, regardless of their background or circumstances.

Most of our services and opportunities are open to all, but some might be limited to specific groups - we'll make it clear when this is the case.

Online support

Email careers-support@arts.ac.uk with your employability and initial enterprise questions. We can also support you with reviewing your CV, portfolio or cover letter and help you with accessing employability resources.

Career one-to-ones

We offer 20-minute career one-to-ones during term time, Mondays – Thursdays. You can chat to us about identifying your creative skills and career paths, where to find opportunities, preparing for interviews or for advice and guidance about your current creative career.

Book a one-to-one now.

Our one-to-one service is exclusively for current UAL BA, MA, and PhD students and UAL alumni who graduated more than 5 years ago.

For graduates up to 5-years after graduation, find out more about our graduate support including how to book one-to-ones.

Career Wellbeing Wednesdays

We encourage students to view employability holistically. We empower you to understand what is important to you, and the opportunities open to you.

We offer Career Wellbeing one-to-one support to UAL students on Wednesdays from October 2022.

Book a one-to-one now.

Our employability workshops

We run regular workshops and events to support students to gain confidence in employability and freelance knowledge. Workshops are tailored to prepare students to join the creative and cultural industries and provide access to useful employability resources.

Creative CV for... 

Tailored workshops to help students design and highlight their creative attributes, skills and experience on their CV.

Professional Portfolios for...

These sessions provide insights into preparing and presenting your portfolio to professionals and how to tell your story through your portfolio.

How to... 

A workshop series providing tips and insights on aspects of employability, including: cover letter writing, maximising your LinkedIn and tips on networking.

Create your future...

A series of sessions delivered as part of Wellbeing Wednesday. Create Your Future focuses on a different topic within career wellbeing to holistically support your employability and career development.

View upcoming workshops and events on What's on.

Our workshops and events are for current UAL BA, MA, and PhD. students and UAL alumni.

  • Illustration of a man on a mountain
    Image by Gracie Dahl
    Find a job

    Find creative work using our jobs board Creative Opportunities and UAL’s temping service ArtsTemps.

  • Illustration of a person working on a computer and creating art a the same time.
    Image by Gracie Dahl
    Work for yourself

    Find useful advice, support and guidance on starting and growing your freelance work or business.

  • Illustration of a small child standing in a gallery
    Image by Gracie Dahl
    Exhibit and sell your work

    We can help you to sell your work by taking part in exhibitions, trade shows and through not just a shop.

  • Illustration of a somebody giving a talk around a table.
    Image by Gracie Dahl
    Careers events and workshops

    Our free events and training sessions will help you learn practical skills, gain advice and meet creative professionals.

  • Illustration of a group of people
    Image by Tasia Graham
    Opportunities for underrepresented students

    Learn more about Creative Shift, our programme of opportunities and events designed to help you kick start your career.

  • Illustration of two people holding a trophy.
    Mentoring by Gracie Dahl
    Awards, funding and mentoring

    We offer a range of funding, mentoring and advice that could help you get your business off the ground.

  • Image by Alys Tomlinson
    Image by Alys Tomlinson
    Manage your Intellectual Property

    Take our IP module and read our advice on how best to manage and benefit from the value of your IP.

  • Illustration of a woman carrying a portfolio to an interview
    Illustration by Gracie Dahl
    Explore our career resources

    Our range of online tools and learning guides are designed to help you with your portfolio, interview skills and more.

Get involved

  • Photo of the inside of UAL's shop.
    not just a shop. Photo by Damian Griffiths.
    not just a shop  

    Discover our retail and enterprise learning space, which sells design products and artwork created by UAL students and alumni to the public.

  • Illustration by Catarina Morais
    Illustration by Catarina Morais
    UAL Careers Toolkit

    A range of information, resources and online learning materials to support students and graduates to develop their career skills.

  • A student working at a laptop
    Student working on a laptop. Photo by Ana Escobar
    LinkedIn Learning  

    Prepare for face-to-face, telephone and video interviews using advice, information, sample questions and a mock interview.

  • Illustration of people talking around a table.
    Image by Gracie Dahl
    Online interview simulator  

    Prepare for face-to-face, telephone and video interviews using advice, information, sample questions and a mock interview.

  • Image courtesy of UAL
    Develop your skills and strengths

    Use UAL's Creative Attributes Framework to explore and develop the qualities you need for a successful career.

  • credit Illustration by Gracie Dahl
    Credit Illustration by Gracie Dahl
    Join our Founders and Freelancers network  

    Work for yourself or want to in the future? Sign up to be part of our Founders and Freelancers group on The Dots!

  • Three people sit at an apple laptop smiling, they are surrounded by notebooks and paper.
    Alys Tomlinson,
    BA (Hons) Creative Direction for Fashion, London College of Fashion, UAL
    Enterprise Experience Programme

    The Enterprise Experience Programme allows you to gain some hands-on work experience with a business started by UAL Alumni.

Meet our student employability team

Ruth Annett
Ruth Annett

Ruth Annett (she/her)

Employability Practitioner for Central Saint Martins

I design, teach and embed employability education within the curriculum. I use critical thinking approaches to support students with their self-development and creative practice. I draw upon my work as a writer/researcher, as well as my background in Fine Art Sculpture.

Contact me at r.annett@arts.ac.uk

Lewis Campbell

Lewis Campbell (he/him)

Employability Practitioner for Camberwell and Chelsea

I teach bespoke careers and employability sessions and embed employability education within the curriculum. I also provide students with ad-hoc careers advice and have a keen interest in diverse and inclusive recruitment practices.

Contact me at lewis.campbell@arts.ac.uk

Jacqui Rudd
Jacqui Rudd

Jacqui Rudd (she/her)

Employability Educator for UAL

I’m dedicated to supporting students with employability, including self-management, freelancing effectively and career wellbeing. I offer student career one-to-ones and teach sessions on a wide range of employability topics.

Contact me at j.rudd@arts.ac.uk

Hannah Breslin. Image by James Hopkirk
Hannah Breslin. Image by James Hopkir

Hannah Breslin (she/her)

Educational Developer - Employability

I lead the Education and Support Team within Careers and Employability, so work closely with the Graduate Support Team, Employability Educators and Employability Practitioners. I’m passionate about supporting others to succeed and use compassionate and equitable approaches to achieve this.

Contact me at h.breslin@arts.ac.uk

Kyle Gibbens. Image by James Hopkirk
Kyle Gibbens. Image by James Hopkirk

Kyle Gibbens (he/they)

Employability Officer

My role centres around our digital learning and teaching for current students. I offer student career one-to-ones Monday –Thursday, 11:30am – 1pm as well as Career Wellbeing one-to-ones on Wednesday at various times. I also develop digital learning via our social media platforms.

Contact me at careers-support@arts.ac.uk

Zoë Tynan-Campbell. Image by James Hopkirk
Zoë Tynan-Campbell. Image by James Hopkirk

Zoë Tynan-Campbell (she/her)

Enterprise in the Curriculum Specialist / Employability Practitioner (LCC)

I'm passionate about diversifying the creative industries, debunking myths, and putting more pennies in the pockets of the next generation of creatives. How? By designing and delivering bespoke employability and enterprise education that is student centered and value driven.

Contact me at Z.tynancampbell@arts.ac.uk

Stories

  • Networking: Industry & UAL Grad Get Together
    Image by Oyin Taliat

    Networking: Industry & UAL Grad Get Together

    The Graduate Employability Team held a festive Q&A panel networking event with industry professionals and brands with a chance for graduates to gain valuable industry insights and tips in a variety of sectors, hear career stories and ask questions

  • Conquering creative blocks

    Conquering creative blocks

    Creative blocks, or barriers to inspiration, are an inability to access our internal creativity. And there are many causes of this including self-doubt, rejection, comparisonitis, feedback, life events as well as burnout and more.

  • Balancing compassion with self-discipline
    Cloud patterned textiles by Hugging Yue, MA Textile Design, Chelsea College of Arts | Image: David Poultney

    Balancing compassion with self-discipline

    If you focus solely on self-discipline, you can easily burn out, you can have trouble sleeping, and get caught up in creating a pattern of hustle working which can cause stress.

  • Creative Hack: UAL cross-college collaboration to tackle social and environmental challenges
    Creative Hack (group photo): Emmi Hyyppa

    Creative Hack: UAL cross-college collaboration to tackle social and environmental challenges

    UAL’s Creative Hack took place in person at High Holborn over 3 days and this year's theme is ‘Collaborate and Create for Positive Change’.

What's on