Photography and Video (Extended) Diploma Level 3

Through­out this course you will devel­op and apply a broad range of trans­fer­able skills. You will be able to demonstrate:

• Ini­tia­tive
• Inde­pen­dent inquiry
• Cre­ative thinking
• Reflec­tive learning
• Team work­ing
• Self-man­age­ment
• Effec­tive participation
• Prob­lem solving
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion

You will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take part in week­ly life draw­ing class­es to devel­op your obser­va­tion­al, fig­u­ra­tive and mixed media skills. Every com­put­er through­out the col­lege has the lat­est Adobe Cre­ative Suite soft­ware, allow­ing stu­dents to devel­op tech­ni­cal skills on indus­try stan­dard tech­nol­o­gy as well as access to a range of tra­di­tion­al media includ­ing the Cre­ative Arts depart­ment print room. Spe­cial­ist lec­tur­ers on the Lev­el 3 Cre­ative Arts Diplo­mas offer reg­u­lar work­shops to widen your skills which in turn can be applied to your project work.

5 GCSEs at grades 4/C or above includ­ing Eng­lish and maths, and an arts-based sub­ject at grade 6/B or above.

Alter­na­tive­ly a Mer­it in a rel­e­vant Lev­el 2 Diplo­ma, and a GCSE grade 4/C in Eng­lish and maths, or a pass for func­tion­al skills Lev­el 2 Eng­lish and Maths.

This course requires an interview/​informal chat before a place can be offered, and before your inter­view you will need to sub­mit a port­fo­lio of art­work to demon­strate your artis­tic strengths. You will also be set an assign­ment in July to be sub­mit­ted before you enrol at the end of August. 

A Mer­it in your first year is required to enter the sec­ond year Extend­ed Diploma. 

We will review each appli­ca­tion on a case-by-case basis to ensure you get a place on the course most suit­able for you.

One of the ways we do this is through a very effec­tive ​‘6 weeks to suc­cess pro­gramme’ that oper­ates from the first day you start your course. This includes sup­port such as (but not lim­it­ed to):

• Allow­ing you to change cours­es if you change your mind in the first 6 weeks — sub­ject to course avail­abil­i­ty
• Mov­ing you between course lev­els if you are find­ing your cur­rent lev­el too easy / too hard ‑sub­ject to course avail­abil­i­ty
• One-to-one reviews with your aca­d­e­m­ic tutor to ensure you are pro­gress­ing and achiev­ing well

Our course enquiries and admis­sions team can be con­tact­ed at enquiries@​stamford.​ac.​uk should you have any fur­ther questions.

Assess­ment is com­plet­ed through a port­fo­lio of evi­dence which will be inter­nal­ly assessed. You can utilise your port­fo­lio to take to Uni­ver­si­ty or job inter­views to show­case your abilities.

You will need to pur­chase an equip­ment pack at the start of the year cost­ing £60.

For­mer stu­dents have pro­gressed to top uni­ver­si­ties such as Fal­mouth or Lon­don Col­lege of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion. After this course you could progress to study a BA Hons Degree in Art, Design, Fash­ion or Pho­tog­ra­phy, as well as oth­er cre­ative cours­es at this lev­el. Alter­na­tive­ly, you may wish to study Graph­ic Design or Cre­ative and Edi­to­r­i­al Pho­tog­ra­phy at the Uni­ver­si­ty Cen­tre Peterborough.

The UAL Lev­el 3 Diplo­ma and Extend­ed Diplo­ma in Cre­ative Prac­tice: Art, Design and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, are qual­i­fi­ca­tions for post-16 stu­dents look­ing to pur­sue a spe­cial­ist career in the cre­ative industries. 

The qual­i­fi­ca­tions pro­vide stu­dents with the nec­es­sary indus­try rel­e­vant skills, knowl­edge and under­stand­ing to access appro­pri­ate entry lev­el roles, train­ing pro­grammes or appren­tice­ships in the cre­ative sec­tor, or apply for pro­gres­sion to relat­ed high­er edu­ca­tion cours­es. This qual­i­fi­ca­tion pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty for those stu­dents who have ambi­tions and aspi­ra­tions of a career in the visu­al arts to explore, devel­op and test their cre­ativ­i­ty with­in a qual­i­fi­ca­tion struc­ture that is stim­u­lat­ing and demanding. 

The objec­tives of this qual­i­fi­ca­tion are to enable stu­dents to: 

1 Devel­op the knowl­edge, skills and attrib­ut­es asso­ci­at­ed with the cre­ative process and cre­ative practice 

2 Gain con­fi­dence, knowl­edge and under­stand­ing of 2D, 3D and 4D mate­ri­als, meth­ods, tech­niques and processes

3 Gen­er­ate ideas, solve prob­lems and pro­duce cre­ative out­comes that explore and com­mu­ni­cate clear and indi­vid­u­alised inten­tions and purpose

4 Effec­tive­ly use a reflec­tive prac­tice to take respon­si­bil­i­ty for their own learn­ing, devel­op­ment, deci­sion mak­ing and progression 

5 Take respon­si­bil­i­ty for the research, plan­ning, time and actions required to access voca­tion­al and edu­ca­tion­al pro­gres­sion oppor­tu­ni­ties 6 Pro­fes­sion­al­ly present them­selves and their work 

Year 1 Unit 01: The Cre­ative Process This unit requires stu­dents to explore and inter­ro­gate the cre­ative process ful­ly through its var­i­ous stages. Stu­dents will explore, apply and assess the dif­fer­ent stages of the cre­ative process in order to devel­op an under­stand­ing of the sep­a­rate activ­i­ties with­in each stage, and how these activ­i­ties inform one anoth­er holis­ti­cal­ly. Stu­dents will inves­ti­gate and devel­op these skills through intro­duc­to­ry projects and work­shops that require them to engage with and show an increas­ing abil­i­ty to iden­ti­fy and apply cre­ative process skills. Activ­i­ties in this unit will be under­pinned by an intro­duc­tion to the cre­ative indus­tries, where stu­dents will devel­op a con­tex­tu­al under­stand­ing of the role the cre­ative process plays in the devel­op­ment of cre­ative arts out­comes and prod­ucts across a broad spec­trum of spe­cial­ist prac­tices and voca­tion­al roles.

Unit 02: Devel­op­ing Cre­ative Prac­tice This unit requires stu­dents to learn about what a cre­ative prac­tice is along with gath­er­ing knowl­edge of var­i­ous mate­ri­als, tech­niques and process­es used across 2‑dimensional, 3‑dimensional and 4‑dimensional cre­ative prac­tices. Stu­dents will also explore, exper­i­ment and refine their use of 2‑dimensional, 3‑dimensional and 4‑dimensional prac­ti­cal skills asso­ci­at­ed with a cre­ative prac­tice, as well as devel­op­ing an under­stand­ing of how to safe­ly use cre­ative prac­tice skills to solve prob­lems, devel­op out­comes and present work appro­pri­ate to the cre­ative practice.

Unit 03: Respond­ing to a set Brief In this unit, stu­dents will be syn­op­ti­cal­ly assessed on the all the learn­ing they have devel­oped through­out the qual­i­fi­ca­tion, by respond­ing to a set voca­tion­al brief. They will demon­strate their abil­i­ty to devel­op a project pro­pos­al, gen­er­ate ideas and pro­duce and present out­comes that respond to a set brief. They will also be expect­ed to demon­strate prac­ti­cal skills to realise cre­ative out­comes, reflect on the cre­ative process, and use reflec­tive prac­tice to inform and direct the choic­es they make and how suc­cess­ful they have been in meet­ing the brief.

Year 2 units include: 

Unit 04: Research­ing a Spe­cial­ist Indus­try Prac­tice This unit requires stu­dents to explore all aspects of a cho­sen spe­cial­ist indus­try prac­tice with­in the cre­ative indus­try, to inform their devel­op­ment as a cre­ative prac­ti­tion­er and influ­ence their future career pro­gres­sion. They will also be required to devel­op an under­stand­ing of the con­text of their cho­sen role with­in the wider envi­ron­ment and apply reflec­tive prac­tice to influ­ence their choic­es and deci­sions. Stu­dents will apply their knowl­edge of their spe­cial­ist indus­try prac­tice to a self-ini­ti­at­ed cre­ative inves­ti­ga­tion, draw­ing on the works of exist­ing prac­ti­tion­ers and their own research to influ­ence and inform ideas and refine their own cre­ative inten­tions and pur­pose. The work they pro­duce will evi­dence the devel­op­ment and refine­ment of their spe­cial­ist visu­al lan­guage skills in order to effec­tive­ly com­mu­ni­cate ideas and concepts.

Unit 05: Spe­cial­ist Tech­ni­cal skills Devel­op­ment This unit requires stu­dents to explore in-depth the skills and cre­ative process­es asso­ci­at­ed with a cho­sen spe­cial­ist indus­try prac­tice. Stu­dents will be required to refine their under­stand­ing of their cho­sen spe­cial­ist indus­try prac­tice through focused mate­r­i­al and process led explo­ration and exper­i­men­ta­tion. Stu­dents will devel­op an under­stand­ing of the spe­cif­ic mate­ri­als and tech­ni­cal skills used with­in their spe­cial­ist indus­try prac­tice to solve prob­lems and devel­op out­comes rel­e­vant to their spe­cial­ist indus­try prac­tice. Stu­dents must apply safe work­ing prac­tices, as they devel­op and refine their tech­ni­cal skills, and ensure that they use appro­pri­ate spe­cial­ist pre­sen­ta­tion tech­niques to demon­strate their tech­ni­cal skills. Through­out this unit stu­dents will be expect­ed to reflect on and eval­u­ate their per­for­mance to inform per­son­al devel­op­ment with­in the con­text of their cho­sen specialism.

Unit 06: Spe­cial­ist Cre­ative Out­come In this unit, stu­dents will be syn­op­ti­cal­ly assessed on all learn­ing they have devel­oped through­out the qual­i­fi­ca­tion, by real­is­ing and pre­sent­ing a self-ini­ti­at­ed project. Stu­dents will demon­strate an in-depth under­stand­ing of a spe­cial­ist indus­try prac­tice to set the intent and pur­pose of their indi­vid­ual cre­ative inves­ti­ga­tion and apply their knowl­edge and under­stand­ing of the cre­ative process to devel­op, realise and present solu­tions to their pro­posed inves­ti­ga­tion. Stu­dents must use all aspects of the cre­ative process har­mo­nious­ly with­in their prac­tice to devel­op an appro­pri­ate and voca­tion­al­ly rel­e­vant out­come that meets the needs of a select­ed audience/​consumer.