UAL Arts Temps Ltd - Our journey so far

Our journey started over 15 years ago,

with the creation of an in-house job shop, Arts Temps, at University of the Arts London (UAL). Common within universities job shops enable students to pick up paid work in their university, supporting university operations and enhancing student employability. However, 5 years ago we determined that the service was oversubscribed, and we wanted to be able to provide more opportunities for our students and graduates as the feedback from those that had worked with Arts Temps was so positive.

We explored different ideas such as adopting a franchise model and eventually settled on launching our own non franchise, independent, recruitment agency. This would allow us to create a compliant vehicle to employ only UAL students and graduates, in the university and trade externally, offering our exceptional talent to businesses.

The business would be a social enterprise, reinvesting surplus back into the university, we would become London Living Wage accredited and work to reduce exploitation within the creative industries. We would develop our industry leading contracts and inclusive recruitment practices, informed by extensive work and eventual corporate membership of the UK’s biggest recruitment membership organisation, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

Now in year four we have worked with over 100 businesses, managed over 10,000 jobs and supported UAL students and graduates to enhance their employability, expand their networks and financially support themselves.

Our innovative business model means we can have a dedicated team of recruitment experts focused on sourcing a diverse range of paid work for our candidates, unique to the higher education and recruitment sector.

To find out more, or access our vast range of talented candidates email artstemps@arts.ac.uk