SHIFT
Entrepreneurial Skills for the Creative and Cultural Industries
SHIFT is a free and unique entrepreneurial training programme designed to equip participants with the practical, creative, and business skills and contacts they will need for a successful career as an independent practitioner in the creative and cultural industries.
SHIFT runs for one week (Monday - Friday) in early September each year via a series of online workshops, breakout conversations, creative activities, and one-to-one clinics. Topics covered over the week include budgeting, time management, marketing, branding, legal issues, money management, and taxes.
Participants will finish the week with:
- New ideas and innovative approaches to apply their work.
- A stronger sense of their values and goals.
- An action plan to help take the next steps in their career.
- A new network of creatives from a range of disciplines.
SHIFT is managed and delivered as a collaboration between QMU, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Glasgow School of Art, and is funded by the Scottish Funding Council through the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Fund (KEIF).
SHIFT 2025 will run from Monday 8 September to Friday 12 September 2025.
For more information contact the RKEDU team or visit the official
Previous SHIFT Programmes
Since the launch of SHIFT in 2019, over 500 students and graduates have completed the programme and left with the tools, plans, contacts and skills to forge their own career paths and carve a living from their creativity.
In 2024, 30 spaces on SHIFT were opened up to participants from other universities across Scotland, and this will continue in 2025.
Watch the videos from our previous SHIFT programmes to hear from past participants about their experiences.
