Starting a Creative Career

Summer School for Adults

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Overview

Build confidence in your business or freelance career

Are you feeling stuck or tired of being on the hamster wheel? Do you want to build a sustainable creative career in the arts? This course will give you the skills and confidence to bring your practice to life and to introduce you to the skills needed for starting and managing your creative business.

This week-long summer intensive is for creative arts practitioners seeking to start their own creative business, refocus their freelance work, enhance their practice, or prepare to turn their practice into action. The course will kickstart your vision, helping you to identify your audiences, build a financial model, develop and tell your story, and build your adaptability.

During this week, you will work on:

Developing your vision and using storytelling to connect with your customers or audiences;
Understanding how to map out your objectives and strategies;
Exploring financial implications for a creative business and different forms of funding;
Adapting to changes in the market;
Practicing how to pitch your business to potential customers and market your story.

Through in-person seminars and lessons, you’ll build business acumen skills, explore business strategies, and gain confidence in pitching your work.

This will be delivered in-person at the RCS with some key reading/follow up tasks as well as break-out and live tasks/commentary throughout.

This course is for you if:

you have a good idea but don’t know how to make it a reality
finding your leadership style and learning about the role of neurodivergence
have undertaken a pilot project but want to scale up
you are looking to explore creative entrepreneurship
you like conceptual thinking or detailed project management style thinking.

This course is ideal for those who are considering the new Creative Entrepreneurship year-long blended learning programme. This summer course will allow students to experience elements of the upcoming programme. This will include the opportunity to ask questions, engage with the teaching practices, and gain an insight into what the blended programme will offer.

Courses you may be interested in
We also run a variety of different courses throughout the year, and update our programme regularly – you can find all courses by clicking here.

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Sign up to our mailing list to receive the latest updates of courses, offers and news from Short Courses. You can do this by completing this short online form found here.

Contact us
If you have any questions about this course before you book it, please get in touch with us at shortcourses@rcs.ac.uk.

The important details

Age:
18+

Cost:
£595

Date:
17-21 August 2026, Mon - Fri

Time:
10am - 5pm

Venue:
RCS, 100 Renfrew St, Glasgow G2 3DB

More details will be published soon.

This course is open access for adults aged 18+.

This course is for you if:

you are interested in building business skills
you have a good idea but don’t know how to make it a reality
have undertaken a pilot project but want to scale up
you are looking to explore creative entrepreneurship
you like conceptual thinking or detailed project management style thinking

Plan and prepare to attend all classes.
Dress comfortably in clothes which are suitable for the activity you are taking part in.
Bring a notepad and pen/pencil in case you wish to make notes.
Please bring a bottle of water to stay hydrated during your class (even when at home)

Any course specific preparation will be sent to successful applicants ahead of the course start date.

We want to ensure as many children, young people and adult learners as possible can access the performing and production arts education that is offered through Short Courses at RCS. Financial support options available for Short Courses include:

Agnes Allan Bursary

Agnes Allan was a teacher, passionate about inclusion, and this bursary scheme exists to offer support to students to participate in the performing or production arts.

The Agnes Allan Bursary provides some support to students who may require financial assistance to take part in a short course in drama, music, production or screen.

Anyone who wishes to take part in our Short Courses and faces a financial barrier can apply for bursary support to help meet the cost of tuition fees.

James McAvoy Drama Scholarships

BAFTA-winning and Golden Globe nominated actor James McAvoy is committed to nurturing the creative potential of young Scots who experience barriers to access and participate in drama at RCS Short Courses.

James is a graduate of the BA Acting programme at RCS and Patron of the Junior Conservatoire of Drama. The Glasgow-born actor has funded the new James McAvoy Drama Scholarships to enable young people to experience the world-class drama training at RCS as he did.

The scholarship aims to support applicants who would otherwise find meeting the cost of tuition fees at RCS a barrier to accessing pre-Higher Education drama training at the Royal Conservatoire.

You can find more information about these funds on our Financial Support page.

We run various promotional offers for our Short Courses and Summer Schools. You can view our current offers on our Promotional Offers page.

You should contact us at shortcourses@rcs.ac.uk to request your discount code before booking a course.

Please note, only one promotional offer can be applied per course and should be used at the time of booking as we are unable to apply a discounts retrospectively.

Please see our Short Course FAQs for more information about all aspects of choosing, booking and attending your course.

Please see our Short Courses – Terms and Conditions for more information about your contract with Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Cancellation and Refund policies.

Sign up to our mailing list to receive the latest updates of courses, offers and news from Short Courses. You can do this by completing this short online form.

Short Courses
shortcourses@rcs.ac.uk

Summer Schools
summerschools@rcs.ac.uk

Credit-Rated
credit-rated@rcs.ac.uk

Bursary and Scholarship
bursaryscholarship@rcs.ac.uk