Examples of this from the students’ achievement chapter are the recognition that:
• Through their coursework students were encouraged to take risks,
try out new or untested approaches and develop their own solutions to
problems.
• Where students were provided with opportunities to show their work and
perform in college and public venues they often took responsibility for
planning and organisation which developed their ability to work
autonomously.
EnterpriseUpfront has identified examples of good practice from the developing students as practitioners; preparing them for progression and employment; interdisciplinary working chapters which may be of particular interest to enterprise educators and curriculum leaders. These are:
• The encouragement for students to see themselves as practitioners. This approach ensured that amongst other benefits students developed good personal, core and employability skills.
• The extensive range of enrichment and progression opportunities, promoting students’ wider interest in the creative industries and developing their enterprise skills and economic well-being.
• The enhancement of students’ experience of working in the creative industries by developing wide-ranging partnerships with industry, sector skills councils, local employers, businesses and professional organisations.
• Providing opportunities for students to work with external clients directly on live projects or commissions is identified as good practice. Ofsted highlight that for students the exposure to professional working environments informed by the industry sector was a powerful motivation for learning.
• End-of-year exhibitions, productions and performances were identified as providing good opportunities for collaborative working. Examples provided are performing arts productions and fashion shows involving students and staff from drama, dance, art and design, music and media. In the best developed examples, hair and beauty students were also involved in fashion shows and media shoots and travel and tourism students worked on events planning and marketing activities.
The report is accompanied by a documentary film on DVD which gives students, teachers and college managers the chance to voice their views on what makes their arts courses such as success.
To watch extracts visit http://excellence.qia.org.uk/ampsurveyreport or to order email freepublications@ofsted.gov.uk
Click here to download Identifying good practice: a survey of college provision in arts and media report in full.