Art and Design BTEC Level 1 Diploma

This course will introduce you to the broad range of disciplines within art and design. You will explore drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, wood metal and plastics, photography and digital media.

There will be an opportunity to plan and run a `live’ project and develop employability skills for the creative industries. There will be artists and study visits to art galleries and museums. Students will also take functional skills qualifications in Maths English and ICT.

The first six weeks of this course are a period of exploration where you will produce lots of practical work. The aim is to introduce you to the course and give you a taste of things to come. You will be set a short brief and have a deadline to meet. It is your chance to display your talents and prove that you are a dedicated student. It will also determine whether this is a suitable course of study for you. For the rest of the year you will continue your studies and in addition to your functional skills sessions and personal tutorial sessions you will have approximately four art sessions per week of 2.5 hours each. They will be varied and include group critiques lectures and workshops. You will produce a variety of practical work including production plans annotation and final evaluations. You will also learn to develop your critical skills and ability to contextualise your work in relation to historical and contemporary artists. There are several skills and attributes that will be expected of you. You will need to be continually focused on generating and developing ideas as this is the essence of all creativity. In addition to this you must demonstrate self-motivation and a willingness to experiment. Many of your tutors are practising artists and designers bringing current industry practice to the classroom. From our teaching team you can expect enthusiasm and commitment, individual guidance to help you progress and achieve, help with working on your individual strengths, extensive guidance for application to higher level course, help with building a varied portfolio of work, help with exploring careers within the creative industries.



The course is taught through a range of approaches designed to provide you with the opportunity to develop your technical and conceptual skills. In order to cover all of the eight units needed to pass the course you will be given assignments to work on at regular intervals throughout the year. The teaching team will help and guide you through all of the assignment requirements. All of your work will be assessed as you complete the assignments and staff will provide you with feedback to help you better understand the processes behind the subject matter. Delivery methods will include practical workshop sessions in specialist rooms classroom-based theory sessions supported by IT and computer-based research real-world industry situations (group projects collaborative assignments) and educational visits to venues within the UK.

Students studying on this exciting programme will gain access to specialist facilities such as the Digital Media Centre, the ceramics metal wood and screen printing workshops, highly skilled and industry experienced teaching staff, excellent routes of progression within Reading College for further Visual Arts courses, a full Art Design and Media BTEC Level 1 Diploma and Level 1 Functional Skills in English and Maths, an accredited qualification if you have not already achieved one, help with becoming more independent. Throughout the duration of the programme students will develop a portfolio of work industry knowledge as well as skills to help them find employment or support an application for further study. Additional learning and pastoral support is offered through the tutorial support.

All applicants will be interviewed and should bring along a portfolio of recent art work including drawing painting and design work. Details of suggested portfolio content is included at the bottom of this page. A satisfactory reference is required.

Students who successfully complete the one-year programme and achieve the full BTEC Level 1 with an overall Merit profile will be able to progress on to our Level 2 course the Art Design and Media BTEC Level 2 Diploma.