Developing creativity for the world of work: a case study

Professional studies has traditionally been regarded as an add-on extra to the mainstream business of creative practice for design students. It has frequently been delivered in the final year of study and the content has normally been giving general advice on CV preparation plus appearances from successful practitioners and/or various funding bodies. This article shares the experiences of developing professional studies for students at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth as a funded ADC-LTSN project, with reference to creativity as it is perceived in the world of business and management. This revealed a dominance of the myth of the creative artist in the literature of art, design and management studies. The second part of the project involved professional trainers using psychological profiling tools and other activities with the students. This led to a consideration of the importance of teamworking for the process of creativity. The activities met with some resistance from the students. This could be explained by the prevalence of the myth of the creative artist and also the questioning culture of a higher education context.