News and Blog

How can micro-organisations offer school work experience? Piloting a collaborative work experience offer for Southampton schools.

One of the strategic priorities for the SCEP, identified by our members, is ‘building a workforce for the future.’ We want to provide inclusive training and skills development opportunities for young people and the cultural sector. This priority aims to build on the value of studying the arts for improving young people’s work readiness, for example developing teamwork and communication skills, and also to support routes into careers in the creative industries.

Many young people and schools don’t know what careers are possible in the cultural and creative industries, and often career pathways into the creative industries are unclear. Research from the Careers and Enterprise Company demonstrates that experiences of the workplace are a valuable tool to help young people understand the options available. Most secondary schools in Southampton offer their students one week of work experience in year 10. However, hosting an entire weeklong work experience is not possible for the many micro and small businesses in the cultural and creative industries.

Collaborative cultural work experience model

To help address the problems with the current model, the SCEP, with support from Artswork, is piloting a collaborative approach to cultural work experience with the aim of supporting micro and SMEs to offer placements and enhance students’ knowledge of the cultural and creative industries.

We want to create a framework where arts organisations can collaborate and collectively offer a weeklong placement. This might mean an anchor organisation hosts students for the week and freelancers and micro-organisations provide tasks and experiences. Or, it could be two or three organisations host for one or two days in partnership.

What do students and teachers want from cultural work experience?

We have been speaking to students and teachers in Southampton to better understand their needs. So far, they have told us:

  • Most Southampton schools offer students one week of work experience in Year 10.
  • Most schools run this towards the end of the summer term. However, one school runs theirs in the autumn term and another does theirs in the spring term.
  • Schools ask students to organise their own placements.
  • Students look for work experience by reaching out to friends and family and by writing to organisations.
  • Most students would be happy to do work experience as part of a group and would like to have a range of tasks to work on rather than just one activity.

Timeline and activity

We plan to pilot the first work experience placements in June and July 2025. We are currently surveying teachers, students, cultural organisations, and freelancers to find out what you would want from this collaborative work experience model. We will then run workshops to devise the model in February 2025. In the spring, we will recruit cultural organisations to take part in the pilot and advertise the placements to students.

Help shape the collaborative work experience offer

Please complete our short surveys to tell us what you want from work experience. For cultural organisations and teachers, you can also express an interest in taking part in the pilot at the end of the form.

Apply Now to Join the SCEP Steering Group

Are you passionate about ensuring young people across Southampton can access the arts? Do you want to work on projects that promote cultural education in the city? Apply to join Southampton Cultural Education Partnership’s (SCEP) Steering Group and help deliver our priorities. 

We are seeking to recruit two new Steering Group members.

The Southampton Cultural Education Partnership (SCEP) exists to nurture creative and cultural education for all children and young people in the city. We act as a backbone organisation for the arts and cultural education areas, uniting the education, youth, and cultural sectors.

Strategic priorities and outcomes 2023-25

  • Health & Wellbeing for children and young people through arts engagement 
  • Pathways & Progression
  • Building a workforce for the future

The SCEP is seeking to appoint two new members of the Steering Group. Members will be appointed for a two year term and will commit to offering in kind support, which we estimate will be between half a day and one day a month.

Application deadline: 5th December 2024

To apply, please complete this form: https://forms.office.com/e/5t3gLgjeQf 

For full details, see the application pack below. If you require information in an alternative format or need further assistance, please email scep@soton.ac.uk

SCEP-Steering-Group-recruitment-2024Download

A Summer Full of Colour: What Made Southampton’s Cultural Offering This Summer So Successful?

As a new school year begins and we all settle back into our familiar routines, summer is already beginning to feel like a distant memory. But before we get swept up in plans for the year ahead, I’d like to reflect on what’s been a busy three months for Southampton’s cultural sector.

This summer, creative organisations from across the city showcased Southampton’s thriving arts and culture scene. For locals and visitors alike, there were a plethora of workshops, exhibitions, pop-ups, and festivals to explore. And you don’t have to scroll far on social media to see the smiling faces of organisers, participants, and attendees. But what was it that made these events so successful?

1. A commitment to co-creation

Co-creation is something we talk about a lot in SCEP meetings, and it was good to see organisations putting this into practice over the summer. A brilliant example of co-creation was the Emerge Youth Festival delivered by SoCo Music Project and Southampton Forward. They worked with young people from across the city to create an exciting new festival with live music and local vendors.

Turner Sims also engaged young people when planning their Summer Festival. Their collective of young music programmers, The Vibe, hosted two events at the festival, brining a new perspective to Turner Sims’ already eclectic musical offering.

Co-creation will look different depending on the activities and opportunities you have on offer, but some easy options include working with young people to choose performers for events, design marketing materials, and develop creative programmes and projects.

2. A celebration of local talent

One of the values that our SCEP members share is their passion for cultivating and showcasing local talent. Southampton-based creatives were celebrated at a variety of events this summer, from stallholders at the Mela Festival to performers at Southampton Pride.

While it can be tempting to think that big household names are the best way to capture the attention of your audience, emerging and established local creatives play an important role in keeping your event relevant. And, as an added bonus, these individuals and companies often do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to ticket sales and marketing. So, if you’re not already taking advantage of Southampton’s abundance of makers, performers, and creative practitioners, this is definitely something to consider in the year ahead.

3. A chance to work together

At our last Members’ Meeting, we spoke a lot about creating opportunities for collaboration, and it was great to see so many of our members partnering on projects and events this summer. There are lots of great reasons to team up with other organisations in the sector, from sharing resources and pooling budgets, to sharing expertise and reaching new audiences. And it’s not just official partnerships that can have an impact. Inviting local charities and businesses to run stalls at your event is a simple yet effective way of introducing young people to the variety of arts projects and programmes on offer in the city.

Looking forward

As the autumn term gets underway, many of us will be turning our attention to the challenges facing the sector over the next academic year. In the midst of writing reports and balancing budgets it can be easy to lose sight of what we’re all working towards. But in those moments, let’s reflect on the summer and all the hurdles that we overcame to showcase the very best of Southampton’s arts and culture scene.

Cultural Education Meets Alternative Provision: A Project Overview from In Focus Education and Development

By Faye Phillips, Education Projects Coordinator at In Focus Education and Development

Ensuring that all young people are able to engage in arts and culture is a goal that all of our SCEP members share. To do this, it’s important that we not only focus on mainstream schools and community groups, but also Alternative Provision settings. In Focus Education and Development are known for their fantastic work in this area and so, we asked their Education Projects Coordinator, Faye Phillips, to tell us about their most recent project with Compass School.

Compass School is a specialised Alternative Provision designed to support pupils who face challenges in mainstream education. These students have either been permanently excluded or are at risk of exclusion, and require an alternative learning environment that provides additional support and resources to meet their specific needs. Throughout this academic year, students from Compass School have been attending photography sessions at In Focus Education and Development. This work was made possible by funding from the Virtual School.

Each term, different groups of Compass students attended a weekly session at the In Focus office, based in the heart of Southampton. During their time with In Focus, the students learnt about how DSLR cameras work and how they can be used to capture the world in their own vision. The students were able to work with studio lighting, professional lenses and light boxes whilst learning the technical elements of digital photography.

Students mastered the use of shutter speed, gaining the ability to capture ghostly images by slowing the shutter speed to show off this movement, or using a fast shutter speed to freeze a moment in time, like making a bird in flight perfectly still. They also spent time learning about aperture and how it can affect their images, experimenting with depth of field to create a variety of out of focus backgrounds and other artistic effects.

Work produced by a student at Compass School

In addition to mastering technical skills, students spent time looking at the work of famous photographers which helped inspire their practice. Each student picked a favourite image from a photographer and made their own personal response that included technical elements drawn from the artist’s work but also making curatorial decisions to make it their own. By studying the works of famous photographers, they have developed a greater appreciation for different perspectives and approaches, further enriching their own artistic expressions.

Each student’s hard work and dedication culminated in the creation of handmade books, showcasing their personal achievements and progress. These books not only serve as a testament to their growth as photographers but also provide a lasting keepsake to remind them of the skills and knowledge gained during the workshops.

As a result of their commitment and effort, all participating students from Compass School who attended these weekly sessions achieved their Explore Arts Award. 

The work made by these students will be on display at Southampton City Art Gallery from July until October. The exhibition will display a diverse range of photographs and books created by the Compass School students, allowing visitors to experience the unique visions and creative expressions of these young artists.

Delving Into the Data: What the #BeeWell Survey Tells Us About Southampton’s Young People

Understanding the experiences of young people can be challenging. We are often forced to rely on anecdotal evidence, conversations with parents and educators, or our own instincts developed over years working in the sector. Even when high quality quantitative data does exist, the findings aren’t always relevant to the young people in our local neighbourhoods. That’s where programmes like #BeeWell come in.

What is #BeeWell?

#BeeWell is a youth-centred programme that exists to improve the wellbeing of young people across England. #BeeWell listens to the voices of young people through an annual wellbeing survey delivered with secondary schools. They work closely with young people, schools, partner organisations, local government, and health systems to act on the results.

Last autumn, #BeeWell surveyed just over 22,000 Year 8 and 10 pupils in 103 secondary schools across in Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, and Southampton. The survey covered numerous topics including health, relationships, hobbies, school, and much more.

The findings, released in March, give us a better idea of how our young people are feeling.

What about arts and culture?

The hobbies and entertainment section asked young people about the time they spent on various activities, including those linked to arts and culture.

Cinema and Theatre

When asked how often they go to the cinema or the theatre, 19% of the young people surveyed said they go to at least once a month, 45.8% go occasionally, while 35.2% go once a year or less. The picture in different Southampton neighbourhoods varies slightly, with 22.2% going at least once a month in Southampton South, compared to 16.2% in Southampton West. The data also shows a slight increase in visits for those with Special Educational Needs (SEN) compared to those without.

Reading for Pleasure

When asked how often they read for pleasure, 26% of young people said they read at least once a week compared to over 60% who read several times a year or less. The data shows that boys, those in older year groups, those who received free school meals and those with SEN are all less likely to read often compared to their peers. When broken down by area, the number of young people reading often was lower than average in Southampton East, North, South, and West, but higher than average in Southampton Central.

Making Things

When asked how often they draw, paint or make things outside of school, 40.4% of young people said they do this often or sometimes compared to just under 60% who did this occasionally or rarely. When looking at how gender affects these figures, the number of young people doing these activities often drops from 50.2% for girls to 28.8% for boys.

What next?

When we compare the findings above to the high number of young people regularly engaging in sports outside of school (71.4%), we can see that there’s still a long way to go to improve engagement in arts and culture. However, quantitative data can only ever tell us part of the story, to fill in the blanks we need to continue to engage in conversations with young people and other stakeholders. We need to keep evaluating ourselves and asking the challenging questions. Are our services affordable, accessible, and inclusive? Are we visible enough to the communities we aim to support? How can we collaborate with other sectors like sports or healthcare? How can get better at referring to other services in our area?

But you don’t have to do it alone. Through our blog and our Member Meetings, the SCEP is here to help you find creative solutions to the issues facing our young people.

Further Reading

#BeeWell Neighbourhood Data Hive

HIPS Headline Findings 2024

The #BeeWell team also completed a research briefing on PACE, where conclusions show that engagement in a wide range of activities is beneficial for wellbeing. Read more here.

To discuss the programme in more detail the team can be contacted at hiow.beewell@hants.gov.uk