Welcome to career-plans.com, the FREE website designed for young adults aged 14 to 23 years who are deciding on their career plans.
Here we exchange career and job information between parents and young adults, giving detailed and enlightening insights drawn from first-hand experience.
So often careers are left just to chance. However, the more first-hand information you have, the more informed your choice. The more informed your choice, the more successful your career.
With higher education fees set to rise, it is really worth researching the validity of the course you choose for the career plan you have in mind. Will it really fit the job you ultimately want?
Remember, you are at the beginning of your career, so do not leave it just to chance. Make your informed choice with our help...
And see where life leads you.
| NAME: Alison Nicholson | JOB TITLE: Art teacher/lecturer |
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| YEARS OF EXPERIENCE: 36 TODAY'S ENTRY REQUIREMENTS: My qualifications - BA Hon, ATD. BA Hon/MA/(ARCA)/PhD (all in any of the fields of applied art, fine art, graphics, textiles etc) PGCE BEST AND WORST BITS ABOUT THE JOB: Best - seeing individual students progress and develop as artists and their joy in achieving this. Worst - All the paperwork and statutory hoops that institutions, exam bodies and governments force one to jump through. WHAT I WISH I'D BEEN TOLD BEFORE I STARTED: How exhausting teaching is. How it can consume one's own creativity as an artist. HOW DO I SEE THE JOB EVOLVING? If the world was a perfect place (!) I would have all art teachers take a two-year sabbatical after every three years of teaching to refresh their own art practice. This should be an ongoing pattern throughout their teaching career. ANY OTHER COMMENTS: If you go into teaching art, you have to be able to put your students first. Don't teach grudgingly or cruelly because you aren't devoting your time to your own art practice. |
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| NAME: Katherine Leedale | JOB TITLE: Freelance photographer |
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| YEARS OF EXPERIENCE: One and a half. TODAY'S ENTRY REQUIREMENTS: I took a one-year diploma course at the University of the Arts, London, then utilised a contacts network I had already set up from my previous employment in arts administration to launch myself as an arts photographer. Lots of people are self-taught and work their way up the ladder assisting other photographers. I found the course very useful as it gave me all the practical and technical skills I needed as well as a grounding in business management. If you are interested in being a fine art photographer a university course will give you an excellent theoretical basis as well as exposure to galleries who might want to represent you. BEST AND WORST BITS ABOUT THE JOB: Being creative, constantly on my feet both literally and metaphorically, being my own boss and making my own hours are the best parts. The worst is that the work is not particularly consistent at the beginning and I still have to work doing arts marketing sometimes to help pay the rent. WHAT I WISH I'D BEEN TOLD BEFORE I STARTED: How much money you need to invest in equipment (a lot!). I was lucky enough to have some savings but you can also take out a small business loan to get you started. HOW DO I SEE THE JOB EVOLVING? I want to move away from having to do any other work, becoming one of a very small pool of arts photographers in London who are called on by all the major venues. |
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