Arts, Creative Arts and Humanities

Editorial

• An Overview
• Types of Work
• Trends
• References
• Further Reading
• Useful Web Sites

This group of subjects ranges from traditionally academic courses as represented by English and history, to those with a focus on practical and vocational aspects such as design studies and drama. Courses such as drama attract a large number of applicants who wish to make a career in a very competitive field, and who may take some time out of work or do work experience before they establish themselves.

According to the report, Destinations and Reflections, which contains information from The Cultural Industries Survey, ‘Over a half of respondents are in full-time permanent employment. Performing arts graduates are most likely to be in fixed-term positions or self-employment. Self-employment accounts for just under a half of the work reported by performing arts and art and design graduates and is more commonly freelance work than operating a business’. Another report, Working Out, a survey of graduates 18 months after their first degree completion, shows that many graduates from modern languages obtained their job through paid work experience, and over half the graduates were in a job for which a degree was required.

Employers see the less vocational courses as providing training in a wide range of skills. The fewer contact hours that these courses have provide students with the flexibility to develop skills through part-time work and extracurricular activities, and employers expect students to take advantage of these opportunities. Transferable skills such as teamwork, leadership, initiative, communication, business awareness, and adaptability can all be developed during time at university.

The variety of work available to students graduating in the arts and humanities continues to vary. There has been a noticeable drop in the percentage of design studies graduates going on to work as graphic artists and designers six months after their course completion, down from 22.1% in 2000 to 14.9% in 2001. For drama graduates, more have found employment as actors in 2001, at 9.3% compared with 8.1% in 2000. For English and history, there have been increases (up 12.6% for English and 9.4% for history) in the percentages of 2001 graduates entering ‘other clerical and secretarial occupations’, which are not so directly related to degree content. In addition, the percentage of media studies graduates finding jobs in marketing, sales, PR and advertising has gone down by 30.8% in 2001 compared with 2000, and this could be due to the general volatility of these areas of work. The destinations for modern languages graduates remain similar to those of the previous year.

Some of the occupations are predictable, eg English graduates becoming journalists, media studies graduates going into advertising and drama graduates becoming actors. In addition, graduates from a range of disciplines go into a wide range of jobs which have little or no connection with the content of their degree. According to analysis of advertisements in the graduate vacancy publication Prospects Today, currently around 50% of all graduate jobs advertised do not specify a degree subject, primarily because employers are far more interested in the transferable skills, as discussed earlier in this editorial.

Table 1 shows the first destinations of arts and humanities graduates six months after graduation in 1998 and 2001. During this period, the percentage of these graduates entering employment has fallen slightly by 0.5% from 64.3% in 1998 to 64% in 2001. This represents a slightly better picture than the figures for all first-degree subjects where there has been a 2.2% drop in employment. Correspondingly, unemployment amongst arts and humanities graduates rose by 13.2% from 6.8% in 1998 to 7.7% in 2001, following the trend for graduates as a whole. The slight drop in employment could well be the first sign of the recession prior to September 11th. However, there is considerable anecdotal evidence that more graduates nowadays are concentrating on their studies in their final year, and only focus on job applications once they have graduated.

The percentage of arts and humanities graduates enrolling for further study has fallen by 11.9% since 1998 compared with a drop of 2.6% for all subjects. This trend might continue as the first cohort of tuition fee payers graduate only to be faced with more debt if they are to continue their studies at postgraduate level. As in 1998, amongst all the arts and humanities subjects covered here, English and history again have the highest proportion of graduates going on to further study.

• Destinations and Reflections - Careers of British Art, Craft and Design Graduates, Lee Harvey and Alison Blackwell, Centre for Research into Quality, 1999.
• Working Out? Graduates' Early Experiences of the Labour Market, DFEE/CSU/AGCAS/IER, 1999.
• Prospects Today, CSU, weekly.

Detailed information about types of work, written by AGCAS higher education careers advisers, can be found in explore types of jobs. Occupations especially relevant to arts and humanities graduates can be found under:

• Creative Arts, Design and Crafts
• Arts Administrator
• Information Services

AGCAS publications are also available in your local higher education careers service, or from CSU, Tel: 0161 277 5271.

• Careers Using Languages, Edda Ostarhild, Kogan Page, ISBN 0749418214
• Working in History, Tanya Woolf, COIC/DFEE ISBN 0861107063
• BFI Film & TV Handbook 2002, BFI, ISBN 0851709044
• The Media Guide 2002, Paul Fisher, Steve Peak [eds], The Guardian, ISBN 1903809185
• What Can I do with…an Arts Degree?, Beryl Dixon, Trotman, ISBN 0856607223

On this site for a wealth of careers related information by exploring types of jobs and options with your subject.

• Arts Council England
• BBC Jobs
• The Official Guide to Vocational Courses for Drama and Technical Training
• The Design Council
• The Historical Association
• Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL)
• Creative Skillset: The Sector Skills Council for the Creative Industries