May 11, 2022, by Leonie Farrar

Review of the NAA ‘Experience the Culture Sector’ Module

By Leonie Farrar, religion, philosophy, and ethics student blogger

This spring I took part in the Nottingham Advantage Award (NAA) module ‘Experience the Cultural Sector’. This module involved me undertaking a minimum of 35 hours volunteering in a cultural sector business. I also had to give a presentation about my volunteering experience and create a blog or vlog marketing my allocated cultural sector business.

My expectations and goals

I am interested in going into a career in marketing, however I am not doing a marketing degree. Therefore, I really wanted to gain some marketing experience before I graduate by doing some volunteering. When I found the ‘Experience the Cultural Sector’ module, I knew it was the module for me. I am passionate about culture and love attending the theatre, cinema, and concerts. I also enjoy reading and being creative. Therefore, I knew I would enjoy a placement in a cultural sector company.

I was also excited to take part in the activities advertised as part of the volunteering. These were activities like events, marketing, social media, and research. This appealed to me because my main goal was to gain experience in marketing, or transferable skills to marketing, which these activities would provide me with.

My experience

Once I passed the application and interview stage, I was placed with the Music Learning Collective (MLC). MLC is a music school which was founded in 2007 in Nottingham. Since 2007, the Music Learning Collective have expanded to different locations in the East Midlands and France, as well as recently partnering with Marshall Amplifications to create an online learning campus.

During my time volunteering, I was given the project of creating the email communications for subscribers to the ‘MLC powered by Marshall’ campus and for people registering their interest in doing a level 4 or level 6 music diploma through the campus. I split my volunteering into three stages. First, I did research into communications and email marketing campaigns and the email communications of competitor businesses. Second, I used this research to create a bullet point plan of emails. This included email plans around using the online campus, newsletters, and subscription upgrade discounts. Finally, I wrote up the emails. I really enjoyed the whole project but I especially enjoyed writing up the emails because I was able to be creative in both the email copy and suggestions of layout and colours.

This experience helped me to achieve my goal of gaining experience in marketing by offering me the opportunity to be part of an email communications and marketing campaign. The experience and skills I have developed will be really beneficial in boosting my CV and therefore have a positive impact on my future career.

Find out more about the ‘Experience the Cultural Sector’ module and how the Nottingham Advantage Award can help boost your employability.

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