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4.4. Supporting LAMDA Students to Develop Entrepreneurial Skills
Whilst LAMDA alumni have created a number of commercially successful enterprises, we have found no evidence to suggest that this will ever be the aspiration of the majority. However, there is plenty of support for the development of entrepreneurial skills and for an increase in opportunities for students to create their own work. Both of these bring inherent value by themselves, whether or not they lead to commercial success. They will give graduates increased agency in managing their own career and ensure that they have the skills and experience to access an increased number of career options.
It has become clear that there’s not one single approach which would sufficiently embed a culture of entrepreneurial thinking within the student experience. We have learnt that it needs an ‘eco-system’ of activities, with a mix of different types of events, partnership opportunities and training.
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there’s not one single approach which would sufficiently embed a culture of entrepreneurial thinking ....it needs an ‘eco-system’ of activities
The next section sets out some of the ways in which LAMDA could support students to develop this mindset and skillset.
17 Photography by Helen Maybanks for MISCHIEF Photo is from MISCHIEF MOVIE NIGHT IN a theatre company formed with LAMDA alum.
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4.4.1 Defining Success
All of the alumni we interviewed were supportive of LAMDA taking a broader definition of career success and embedding this into the culture and curriculum. They reported an “undercurrent feeling” that creating your own work was seen as “second-rate, not as exciting as getting something through your agent”.
They would therefore have welcomed exposure to a wider range of examples throughout their time at LAMDA. Their experience since graduating has taught them that there are a wider variety of routes to follow to a successful career in the creative industries and that they hold a good many transferable skills.
On the whole, the current students did not share this insight and understanding, defining their idea of career success as leaving LAMDA with an agent and “working consistently”. The exceptions to this were generally those students who had prior industry experience before joining LAMDA; they were more likely to share the views held by the alumni group that success was about doing work that held artistic value, or being able to “pursue your passion” in a much wider sense.
We recommend (R1) that LAMDA takes practical steps to broaden the definition of career success for all its students, using examples taken from a wide range of settings (e.g. community theatre) and inviting those with more varied careers – in or out of the creative sector - into the School to interact with the students from the very start.
Another related element is around the LAMDA marketing and admissions strategy. If the School is keen to educate students with wider ambitions than currently, then we recommend (R2) that this approach is embedded from the very start. This means being clear with prospective applicants about the School’s preference for candidates who can demonstrate an entrepreneurial mindset or an interest in creating their own work and testing for this at the application stage. It is a repositioning of the LAMDA brand, that moves from ‘actor training’ to ‘actor employability’.
Alumni experience since graduating has taught them that they hold a good many transferable skills.
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4.4.2 Career Preparation
“Every other institution spends a lot of time prepping their students for their summer placements - interview training, careers guidance and so on”.
It was clear that both students and alumni appreciate that most graduates will need to manage a freelance career, juggling industry work with other employment. On the whole they accepted that they won’t always be working in their primary role, but they do have a clear preference for other work that they still find fulfilling and wouldn’t interfere too much with their main interest.
A couple of the students felt that getting an agent was still the most important goal, but the majority were keen that LAMDA increased the time spent on preparing them for other routes. The suggestions from both alumni and students included:
We therefore recommend (R3) that LAMDA increases the time given to preparing students for employment in the widest sense. This should include the developing of emotional skills to manage a portfolio career but also practical experience and qualifications3. It could also include the establishment of an in-house temping agency, such as the one from the University of the Arts London4. This serves the dual purpose of giving students opportunities for valuable work experience whilst also the practical support of additional income.
Guidance in finding suitable paid work that can be managed alongside the primary role; Guidance in the range of roles for which their skillset would be a good fit (e.g. sales, marketing, fundraising); Guidance in using their skills to teach others (e.g. LAMDA Exams); Employment opportunities specific to LAMDA (e.g. running widening participation workshops); A database of companies that employ actors to do corporate or other work (including voice work); Learning how to promote themselves, how to conduct themselves in employment situations (e.g. traditional job interview, assessment centre, etc.).
3 Teaching, with a view to applying for associate fellowship of HE Academy or similar, British Sign Language qualifications, or training in teaching and assessing LAMDA Exams. 4 www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-careers/artstemps-temp-at-ual 20
4.4.3 Maximising the Value of the LAMDA Alumni Network
From alumni feedback, it is apparent that there has been insufficient investment in developing and managing the alumni network. We found that there was a lack of consistency in the post-graduation services offered to individuals (even from the same cohort), which were largely dependent on personal relationships rather than a structured programme of engagement. The lack of data on alumni destinations, especially for those that have moved away from the industry, is a concern. This unfortunately only serves to support the view of alumni that LAMDA is not interested in those who take a different path.
Based on best practice from around the higher education sector, we recommend (R4) that additional resource is made available to alumni relations, with all School alumni tracked for at least 5 years and given access to careers support for at least 3 years. This investment will bring immediate returns to the School, with increased access to employers, a network of mentors from a wider range of roles and sectors and an increased choice of people to contribute to curriculum and extracurricular activities.
Alumni engagement can take many forms and recommendations beyond a focus on employability are beyond the scope of this project. However, in terms of general career support, alumni have shared that they would particularly welcome: access to industry experts for advice and support; being able to use LAMDA premises; ways to keep themselves focused and ready to work; opportunities for CPD.
There are also opportunities to broaden the Genesis scheme that already exists, and to create special interest sub-groups of the alumni network; for example, a specific enterprise community, focused on peer support for those setting up or running their own businesses; either for recent graduates, or for those slightly older ones who may make a later decision to set up their own creation. There could also be international networks set up for those living elsewhere in the world (e.g. a United States group), to give more local support and expanded networking opportunities.
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4.4.4 Industry Understanding
Some of the current students expressed concern about spending some of their limited time at LAMDA away from the development of their core skill. Their career aspirations were relatively narrow, compared to the reality of the experiences of the alumni group. This was especially true of the Classical Acting students. However, most of the others recognised the value that increased industry exposure would bring.
Meanwhile, the alumni were almost universally enthusiastic about increasing LAMDA students’ exposure to industry, believing that it would give students a greater understanding of the opportunities and a chance to determine their particular areas of interest. With the benefit of hindsight, the alumni have learnt that the wider employment options can often be more fulfilling than their original ambition and that their performing arts skills have been usefully applied across a wide range of employment contexts.
Their suggestions on ways to broaden the horizons of the curriculum included: Industry placements, either during the summer break or as a 3-month period during the final year of studies, in a range of settings that could include theatre administration and corporate work. Modules that focused on developing other skills e.g. teacher training. Being inclusive during projects by using a variety of settings (theatre-in-education, applied drama, community theatre, venue management etc), throughout the curriculum and extra projects e.g. “Imagine you are in a busy library”, rather than only “Imagine you are on the Olivier Stage”. Give students more opportunity to work on projects that model professional practice. “Ask them to put on a show together with all of the jobs – lighting, sound, tickets, posters, worrying about whether people will turn up, collaborating with others”. This could be a summer project, culminating in a festival performance, for example. Working as a team to respond to ‘live’ briefs for external clients that give an insight into alternative career routes, e.g. non-creative roles in the creative industry, or creative roles in a non-creative sector. Cross-disciplinary approaches, including encouraging engagement with new technologies.
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Earthquakes in London, February 2020. Photography by SRTaylor Photography.
Industry placements have become the norm across many subject areas of higher education, recognised for the valuable insight and experience they give to students, as well as an opportunity to make connections with potential future employers. It is revealing that it was the alumni, who have the benefit of post-graduation work experience, who had a much more developed sense of what they value in a role and had reached the realisation that “really good work can happen anywhere”. They are less concerned about prestige and much more interested in working with people that they like and in a positive environment.
We therefore recommend (R5) that LAMDA identifies the most appropriate opportunity on each course for students to undertake a work placement. We recognise that this is a major undertaking, both in terms of finding appropriate placements and supporting students during the period that they are with the employer, but evidence suggests that the benefits it brings both to the student’s employability and the School are significant5. It is likely that additional consideration will need to be given to the feasibility of placements for international students.
We also recommend (R6) that the programme of external speakers and industry engagement is reviewed and refreshed, to ensure that it represents the full range of career routes available. It should include ‘real models’ as well as ‘role models’, showing the diversity of performance and non-performance positions in the industry.
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4.4.5 Creating Original Work
The student focus groups showed a clear divide between those who were excited about creating their own work and those who perceive it as unrelated to their primary goal. Those who were enthusiastic about the opportunity shared similar views to the alumni.
The key points from their collective feedback are:
If they love their craft and want to spend as much time as possible on it, they’ll always end up creating their own work. This might be in holidays or at lunchtimes, simply for their own enjoyment. This is separate from starting their own business and carries no intention of commercial success. They recognise that if they only want to do the kind of work they are most interested in, then they are likely to have to create their own work; they can’t rely on others. Creating their own work is more interesting than other “traditional jobs”. If what they want to do doesn’t exist, or if they consider the work from their agent is dull, then the solution is to spend time on the things they want to do. Creating their own work in their spare time develops their skills and makes them more employable; it was compared to “a boxer, keeping yourself in shape between fights”. It is rarely a solo project; it takes a community. Knowing who to work with is part of the challenge.
The majority of alumni and students also shared that they initially found the idea of creating their own work to be “scary” and overwhelming. This is a significant barrier to co-creation, so we recommend (R7) that LAMDA identifies ways to ‘demystify’ this and gives students the time within their curriculum to devote to the creation and performance of their own work. Initially, this might simply be at a small project-level within each course.
However, we also recommend (R8) that LAMDA considers the feasibility of a more high-profile annual event for the School which is focused on self-created work. For example, both Rose Bruford6 and Trinity Laban use annual festivals as space for their students to create their own work, as well as an opportunity to link their students with the industry. Trinity Laban’s event is CoLab7, where the entire curriculum is halted for two weeks every February, and every student is given agency over their own work and contribution. The focus is on student development - working with other
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people, bringing together the transferable skills rather than academic content. Although it culminates with a day of sharing the outcomes, the process is equally important as the final performance. The event has “acted as a catalyst for a mindset change” at the institution, which now also plays a role in attracting students with a greater interest in creative and entrepreneurial work. It is now embedded into their strategy and also serves to develop and cement links with industry.
It is worth noting that while there was a lot of positivity for the idea of creating work, the point was also made that this will never be a universal goal; “not everyone feels the need to tell a story of their own”. So some reluctance, possibly from both staff and students, is to be expected, especially in the early stages of implementation.
4.4.6 Access to Funding
“I didn’t have a big trust fund to fall back on”
Funding alone is no guarantee of success. In fact, the Deutsche Bank Award winners were more likely to speak positively about the impact of the accompanying mentor support than the funding that accompanied the Award.
However, as we’ve already identified, there are circumstances in which graduates are significantly constrained in their career options because of their financial situation. In an interview with one alumnus, it was noted that while widening access (especially to those with diverse backgrounds) is to be commended and supported, the challenge is that those students may struggle to sustain themselves financially after graduation – particularly if living in London. He suggested there should be more of a conversation with students from disadvantaged backgrounds around, ‘What are you going to do next? Where will you live? How will you support yourself?’ – and more support after graduation.
Mindful of the current financial challenges facing both the arts and the higher education sectors, we recommend (R9) LAMDA carries out a feasibility study to determine the possibility of being able to raise funds and support for a series of themed bursaries or awards. This could be a Professional Development or Entrepreneurial Fund, possibly with additional support attached such as workshops, training, business support and mentoring. At the same time, the School should identify and promote other suitable external funding opportunities to students and alumni.
6 www.bruford.ac.uk/careers-industry/symposium/
7 www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/creative-innovation/colab 26
