Foundation Apprentices say Hello! Creatives

Kirsty Murray and Hannah Carling from Greenwood Academy in Irvine, are Business Skills Foundation Apprentices at Ayrshire College. They are working with the Marketing Team as part of their experience.

Kirsty and Hannah attended the launch of Hello! Creatives at the Ayr Campus recently.

Hello! Creative Network is a new network that’s been set up to introduce students to the creative industry, local employers and mentors, through a regular series of informal events designed to engage, motivate and inspire.

Here’s what Kirsty thought about the Hello! Creatives Network and her experience at the launch:

"As part of the marketing team I attended the Hello Creatives event last week. Hello Creatives is a networking group created for creative students at Ayrshire College to get together and learn more about their possible career path for after college.

There were three keynote speakers telling all the students attending about their journey into their career and also gave them some advice for the future.

Personally I found these speakers really interesting and inspiring, even with no creative background myself. They told us about the ups and downs that they faced to get to do what they now love. All of the speakers were so different and showed the students different ways that it’s possible to achieve your goal.

A key point one of the speakers mentioned was that even if you do a course you don’t particularly enjoy, it may become very useful to you in the future. Guest speaker Mary Cahill spoke about studying accounts during her career as she was unsure of her career path.

She explained about how at the time she didn’t enjoy studying accounts but later in her career she needed those exact skills to help her create and run her own business.

I felt this was very useful advice as it shows that although you might not quite be on the career path you want to be yet, all the skills you learn along the way are helpful.

After the keynote speakers were finished we broke into different groups for a Q and A session relevant to the students’ subject area.

I attended the media and photography panel. There were four speakers that were all from different types of industry in media and photography which the current students could potentially be interested in the future.

The panel was effective and informative for students as it allowed them to ask any questions they wanted and receive several different answers for different types of job which allows the students to gain a better understanding of the media and photography industry.

The students were then free to network with the speakers and ask any questions related to the course. The panel speakers gave the students a good understanding of the skills required for jobs in that area. All the guest speakers were helpful and were happy to answer any questions they could for the students.

One of my favourite quotes from the day was by keynote speaker Emma Pollock “Whatever you decide to do – be the best you can be.” It captured the idea of being a creative student, and just doing what you feel is best for yourself and enjoying it!”

Sign up to our closed Facebook group– Hello! Creatives - it only takes a few minutes.

You can also share the sign-up link with colleagues, family or friends who may be interested.