Facilitator Call Out Borders and Dumfries and Galloway

Through working with our clients it’s become apparent that, more and more, a career as a freelancer is the primary choice rather than the result of failing to get a job. We believe that dynamic freelancers now proliferate Scotland’s biggest cities where co-working spaces and venues better allow connections to be made.

We used to teach business planning skills to emerging creative start-ups through our Starter for 6 programme, but since its conclusion, the landscape for business support has completely shifted so we thought, how can we best support the creative community now?

Taking the materials developed through Starter for 6 as its foundation, we have been piloting the Creative Company Programme with the aim of building on our relationship with education institutions.

Modern education establishments emphasise the importance of employability, not least so they can justify their existence to government and empower those who choose to study at their institutions. We see entrepreneurial education as a key element for the success of students post college. While some will get their dream job, others will need to create it.

We have found that students with basic entrepreneurial skills are more confident and less likely to make the kind of fundamental mistakes which could derail their journey to becoming successful freelancers.

Over an eight-week period, our Creative Company Programme takes students through the collaborative process of writing their first business plan. So far we have delivered the programme at the University of the West of Scotland, the Creative Media College and are now in talks with other colleges about working in partnership to deliver CCP across Scotland.