Build Experience

From work shadowing and volunteering to part-time jobs, internships and placements, they all offer valuable skills to help take you to the next step in finding a fulfilling and creative career.

There is thought that the best creative opportunities lie only in London, but this is far from true. In this section, we have accumulated various links to UK-wide opportunity boards, as well as experiences available to complete online and overseas.

What are you waiting for? Start exploring!

To put it simply, lots of things! However, if you’re in need of the specifics, sift through the list of examples in the word bank below. You’ll need to think about what skills they help you develop but as you can see there are loads of ways to build experience and develop those all important transferable skills!

• Internships
• Work Experience/ Placements/ Shadowing
• Volunteering
• University Coursework and Research
• Self-directed Projects and Commitments; Blogs, Vlogs, Websites
• Part-time, Term-time, Holiday Jobs
• Co-curricular Activities; Student Societies, Competitions and Awards
• Extra-curricular Activities

Say goodbye to mainstream opportunity boards like Indeed and Glassdoor, and hello to the hand-picked list below.

Alongside the industry-specific resources, found in Discover What’s Out There, we advise adding these opportunity boards to your familiar favourites.

Have a rummage through for upcoming, creative and cultural workshops, events and careers.

• Arts Council England
• Arts Hub
• Axis
• Creative Access
• Creative Lives in Progress Opportunities Outside of London
• Creative Lives in Progress Top Creative Opportunity Boards
• Good Nugget
• The Dots
• Work Culture

Although not entirely creative or culture focused, these websites are also great to check for jobs you may be interested in pursuing.

• Guardian Jobs
• Prospects
• Target Jobs

For those of you who aren’t as geographically mobile to travel for opportunities, don’t panic, we’ve brought the options to you instead.

Below are several online work experience courses and simulations that can help you to build experience and refresh your CV from the comfort of your own home.

• Spring Pod Homepage
• Start Homepage
• The Forage Homepage
• 4Skills Homepage

Want to invest in your passion further within everyday life?

Below is a curated list of magazines, podcasts and artist unions for you to explore on your daily commute, at a café with friends or right before you go to sleep, to keep you on trend with all things creative and cultural.

• Artist Union England
• Arts Professional
• Creative Review
• Campaign Magazine
• Discover! Creative Careers
• Elizabeth Day Podcasts
• Scottish Artists Union
• Squiggly Careers Podcast, Amazing If

Interested in a quick visual summary of some key points? Here’s a comic strip looking at the differences between work experience and internships.
Remember these aren’t the only ways which you can build experience but are two handy examples nonetheless.