The School Old
Hard work beats talent.
Who we are
Looking for a course with around 14 hours contact time a week with lecturers, leaving you plenty of time to stay under the duvet, diddling about on your laptop? Don’t apply.
Looking to learn from a bunch of academics who haven’t operated in the real world since the only mobiles available were the things you hung in kids’ bedrooms? Don’t apply.
Looking to spend a few years messing about with your mates, and then coming out with a certificate that you hope will get you a job doing, er, whatever? Don’t apply.
It might seem strange for a school to open its pitch by suggesting that you don’t apply.
But it’s not odd for us. Because at SCA, the traditional rules of further education (you guessed it) simply don’t apply.
When Marc Lewis persuaded the advertising industry to back him in reinventing John Gillard’s much missed School of Communication Arts in 2010, he was driven by a burning desire to offer something better than the traditional university model.
Because, while universities are ideal for developing certain disciplines, they are far from the best places for those pursuing a vocation – i.e. the next generation of copywriters, art directors and creative technologists that the industry desperately needs to keep it fresh, vibrant and relevant.
Who we want
So, SCA was reborn with a mandate to seek out the best creative talent, and nurture them, cajole them, and inspire them to be next advertising superstars.
And when we seek out that talent we look absolutely everywhere.
Because we’re totally committed to inclusivity, we offer scholarships and bursaries to ensure our learning model is accessible to everyone, not just a financially privileged few.
And because we are on a mission to improve the industry’s historically dreadful diversity statistics, you can rest assured that absolutely everyone is welcome to come and join our family.
School of Communication Arts 2.0 is a portfolio school, supported by over 100 of the top agencies, who donate money to fund scholarships, send staff along to mentor, and more often than not, do both. (Over a third of our 40 students currently benefit from industry funded assistance).
We run an 18-month, intensive course (in fact, don’t think of it as a course, think of it as an apprenticeship, because that‘s what it really is) where students don’t just work every day from 9 to 5 (or 6, or 7, or 8), but most of their other waking hours too – taught by both experienced faculty members, and a network of over 1,000 industry mentors.
They do that not because they are forced to, but because they know that good is the enemy of great. And to be great, you’ve got to put in the hard yards.
They work on both portfolio briefs and live briefs, set by the agencies that support us – which means it’s not unusual for our students to sell work to clients before they have even finished the course.
We aim to ensure that everyone leaves us not only with a portfolio of work that will secure them the job they’ve been dreaming of, but also with the personal skills and can-do attitude that makes them a pleasure to have around.
And we’re pleased to say that, after Portfolio Day (where sponsors are invited to come and look through the work and decide which students they feel are right for them) all our students are offered about 6 months placement, with around 80% securing a job at a top 100 agency within six months of finishing the course.
So, we are looking for passionate creatives, artists, writers, oddballs, misfits, dreamers, and schemers.
If any of those terms apply to you, please do apply.
At a
glance
100 Agencies in support
1000 Industry professionals in our network
80% Of our students get a job
The Campus
You won’t just find SCA’s learning model different to any other school you’ve experienced, you’ll find our choice of location rather different too.
Not for us dreary red brick or concrete blocks set on the outskirts of town. We prefer to be where the real action is.
So you’ll find us amongst the bars and food stalls at POP Brixton – a location that means, as well as being perfectly placed to develop relationships with local businesses and help the local community, we are just a 20 minute trip away from the creative hubs of Soho and Shoreditch. And seconds away from a great lunch.
Facilities
