Course details

Summary

Are you passionate about creativity and cultural expression? Do you want to work in a highly flexible studio or do you want to learn while you’re at work? This programme offers you the space to be part of a multi-disciplinary creative studio team and learn from leading industry educators, artists and designers.

This programme offers two different work streams: Professional Development or Creative Labs.

The Professional Development work stream is designed for school teachers of creative subjects to update, extend and apply their existing academic, practical and creative skills. The focus is self-criticism and reflection skills, classroom and curriculum innovation, enhancing professional practice and career development. It consists of a 60 credit work-based review of learning that takes place primarily on-site. Practically this means that you engage and participate in critical reflection, design thinking workshops, regular community of practice group meetings, and produce a learning portfolio for formative and summative evaluation.

The Creative Labs work stream provides opportunities for artists, designers, photographers, animators, educators, performers, directors and producers to extend and apply their existing practical, creative and collaborative skills in interdisciplinary studio environments, with a particular focus on enhancing creative practice and career development/change. It consists of a 60 credit project course that takes place in Unitec’s photography, art, design, performance and media facilities and studios and/or in industry and community settings. Creative practitioners engage with staff and peers in studio critiques, and work towards an exhibition, publication or live event that contributes to the cultural life of the campus and city.

Highlights

• Create a body of new work, improve your job opportunities, and refresh or reorient your profession.
• Develop critical self-reflection, creative thinking and research skills in order to take your practice to a new level.
• Work in an evolving multi-disciplinary environment with exposure to a wide range of approaches, practices, and theories.
• Ease your transition into a workplace that requires collaborative skills and cross-disciplinary knowledge.
• Improve your communication skills through studio critiques and written components.
• Learn from and engage with supervisors that include notable artists, designers, and educators.

Where to from here

Graduates of the Postgraduate Certificate in Creative Practice have the option of progressing and cross crediting into the highly sought after Master of Creative Practice.

CAREER OPTIONS

• Director
• Experience designer
• Graphic designer
• Photographer
• Producer
• Product designer
• Production designer
• Performance designer
• Sculptor
• Service designer
• Visual artist
• Visual communicator

This programme provides an ongoing qualification for teachers or trainers of adults, who are already working in this field.

Entry criteria

For this programme, you will need the following:

1. A Bachelor’s degree in the same or similar discipline; OR
2. A Bachelor’s degree in an unrelated discipline with a minimum of two years’ appropriate work experience AND demonstrate an ability to succeed in the programme by providing:

• Recommendations from employers or professional colleagues; and
• Evidence of outcomes in the discipline work environment.

3. 8 credits at NCEA Level 2 in English (4 in reading, 4 in writing)

English Language requirements:

• Have achieved NCEA Level 3 and New Zealand University entrance
• NZCEL (Academic) (Level 5)
• IELTS score of 6.5 with no band score lower than 6.0
• TOEFL (pBT) Paper-based test score of 590 (essay 5.5 TWE)
• TOEFL (iBT) Internet-based test score of 79 (writing 21)
• CAE, or CPE with a score of 176. No less than 169 in each skill. OET at Grade B in all sub-tests
• Pearson Test of English (PToE) Academic with a score of 58 with no score lower than 50