Ethos Public Relations Manchester

Creative graduates urged to take a co-operative approach

by Ethos public relations

Students graduating from creative courses will be interested in a new guide and website which has just been launched by Co-operatives UK, the national trade body that campaigns for co-operation.

www.uk.coop/creative is designed to offer help and advice on setting up a co-operative with other like minded individuals and is ideal for graduates who may find it daunting going it alone.

Actress, Victoria Brazier, is a member at The Actors Group (TAG) in Manchester, which is the oldest co-operative outside of London at 30 years old and represents actors across the region.

“About 18 months after leaving drama school, I was in a play at The Royal Exchange in Manchester,” she said. “I invited various agents to see the show, and TAG took me on.

“Being part of the co-operative means I can keep up to date with my colleagues and changes in the industry - we support each other. It also puts you in charge of your own career in a way that having a personal manager never would.

“I just wanted an agent and to be honest, I was not even sure what a co-operative was or what it had to offer,” she admits. “But I soon discovered the advantages of co-operation and I realised that it was something I really wanted to be a part of.”

Linda Ball, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of the Arts London and co-author of the study Creative Graduates, Creative Futures, published by the Institute for Employment Studies, says universities should be talking about co-operation much more.

“Although universities are getting much better at running group projects, they need to make it much clearer to students how important collaboration is, and to provide opportunities for students to get together and co-operate in different ways on projects, and simulate what's actually going on out there in the working world,” she said.

The new guide and website , ‘Creative co-operatives – A guide to starting a co-operative in the creative industries’ sets out advice for recent graduates as well as freelancers and newly self-employed people on setting up creative co-operatives.

Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, said: “Co-operation, collaboration and co-working, whether within formal co-operatives or informal networks and ad hoc structures, have much to offer workers in the creative industries.”

With a turnover of almost £34 billion and 12.9 million members, co-operatives are the largest membership movement in the country and this new guide and website is part of Co-operatives UK first-ever Co-operatives Fortnight (19 June – 3 July 2010) which celebrates that There is an alternative….

If you are interested in finding out more about how to set up a creative co-operative, please download a copy of ‘Creative Co-operatives – A guide to starting a co-operative in the creative industries’.

Posted at 6^th July 2010