Newcastle
Contact: Rachel Pattinson, Vital North Relationship Manager, University of Newcastle.
With support from the ACE Resilience Fund, Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books, has been enabled to provide skills development for people in the arts, including for its main partner Newcastle University students.
Roughly, 12-15 student placements are available each year. These vary from a 1- day workshop, shadowing a member of staff, to 6 months on the Northern Bridge doctoral training consortium, which is supported by the AHRC.
At Undergraduate level, Seven Stories contributes taught courses in practical areas e.g. with a music cohort.
At the Postgraduate level, there are Doctoral placements; and placements for those on the Masters in Creative Arts Practice programme.
The company also works with the universities of Northumbria and Leeds, providing programmes tailored to their needs. Diversity does not appear as an issue.
Interviews are conducted for placements and opportunities advertised via the students union. Although there is no formal assessment, individuals’ journeys are often tracked.
Staff capacity and time are mentioned as the greatest challenges to doing this work. Seven Stories is concerned that placements should benefit the organisation as well as the individual.