Open Call for professionals in the arts, culture and creative sectors | #CreativeGPS: Training Program for Career Management and Transnational Peer Learning

The Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC) warmly invites practitioners from the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) from Latvia, Estonia and Finland to apply for the #CreativeGPS training programs, which will take place from late October to December 2024 both online and on-site.  

Application deadline: 15/09/2024.  

The CreativeGPS is a training program designed to support creative professionals in navigating their careers with greater awareness and a stronger strategic approach. Acknowledging common challenges in creative professions, it focuses on building participants’ capacities to manage their careers by developing essential soft skills and exploring entrepreneurial potentials.   

Three parallel programs will be launched in Latvia, Finland, and Estonia. The programs will run independently by NDPC (LV), TAKU (FIN), and Tallinn Loome Inkubaator (EE), yet including joint sessions to enable peer learning across borders.  

Find more information and apply to the three local programs here:

Latvia:
The full open call in Latvian here

Finland:
Read more and apply on TAKU‘s website

Estonia:
Read more and apply on Tallinn Loome Inkubaator’s website

What will you learn during the program?  

You’ll strengthen a versatile range of skills, including:  

• Self-reflection:  

Where do I stand, and where am I heading? The program will support you in assessment of your current skills, strengths, and areas for improvement. You will gain a clearer understanding of your professional position and ways forward for a more content career.   

• Strategic communication and personal branding:

How do I communicate about my offering? The program helps you identify and articulate your core skills and supports personal branding, including how to effectively communicate your achievements. You’ll learn to pitch yourself and use available tools for your advantage (e.g. LinkedIn, personal websites, PowerPoint presentations, your CV).  

• Relevance of networks:  

Why networking matters? You will learn how to build and leverage networks and approach networking as an essential competence and a strategic tool. In practice, by participating the program you will join events with creative professionals across Estonia, Finland, and Latvia expanding your transnational connections and opportunities.   

• Hybrid work life and self-management:  

How to manage a hybrid worklife dynamics?  The program includes sessions with focus on balancing mission-driven goals with strategic resource management. You will learn about pipeline thinking, investing in opportunities, risk management, and strategies for building continuity in your unique offering.  CreativeGPS provides insights into entrepreneurship and what it can entail for you in the future.   

• Wellbeing and sustainability:  

How to cope with stress and a “no”? The program helps establish supportive structures for an independent career by utilizing available time management tools, strategies for coping with stress, and methods for handling rejection.  

• Futures thinking:   

Where are you heading? The program helps you explore potential career paths and identify where your skills are in demand across different sectors, providing new perspectives on your future. You will develop practical steps and strategies to achieve your career goals.  

Who is eligible to apply?  

The program is designed for professionals in the arts, culture, and creative sectors. There will be 66 open participant positions altogether, which entails 22 spots per country.  

The CreativeGPS program is set to help those identifying with one or more of the various criteria that place them in less competitive job market positions.  

 This includes:  

• Being involved in freelancing, self-employment, micro-entrepreneurship, part-time employment, or those sustaining multiple/unstable sources of income;  

• Those with low-income rates, under the threat of unemployment, or receiving state benefits;  

• Those in the early stages of their careers (e.g. recent graduates entering the job market) or in transitional career stages (e.g. returning from parental leave).  

Additionally, those facing difficulties in finding jobs that align with their skills (e.g. your current work tasks do not match your level of expertise, or you are a creative practitioner currently employed outside of the CCS) are also invited to apply.  

‘Cultural and Creative Sectors’ include all sectors whose activities are based on cultural values or artistic and other individual or collective creative expressions. The sectors include architecture, archives, libraries and museums, artistic crafts, audiovisual (including film, television, video games and multimedia), tangible and intangible cultural heritage, design (including fashion design), festivals, music, literature, performing arts, books and publishing, radio, and visual arts and more.   

How is the program structured?   

The programs will run from October 28th until December 13th 2024. The entire program runs over a structured timeline with specific on-site and online sessions.   

See the calendar below: 

All three programs begin with an on-site national kick-off event held in Helsinki, Riga, and Tallinn, followed by a two-week period featuring four online workshops.   

The second stage includes a 2 day on-site Bootcamp event held in Tallinn, which combines all three programs and its 60+ participants. The Bootcamp is set to boost entrepreneurial and marketing skills and expanding transnational networks. The Tallinn event includes expert inputs, teamwork, and peer discussions, and will then be divided into smaller transnational peer groups for future online meetings.  

The final phase involves one online meeting with peers and a national hybrid workshop to conclude the learning journey and summarize the ways forward in strategically navigating the career paths.   

Enrollment and more information on the local programs: 

Participation is open to practitioners from Estonia, Finland, and Latvia, with 22 spots per country. The enrollment is open from the 15th of August until the 15th of September.  

Interested applicants must fill in the application form by 15 September 2024.  

Funding and participant commitment  

The project is 80% co-funded by the Interreg Central Baltic program with the remaining 20% funding from the project partners.   

The program is free for the participants. However, each participant is expected to cover one’s own travel costs to the Tallinn Bootcamp event. Accommodation in Tallinn is covered by the project, but travel tickets from and to Tallinn are at the participant’s own cost. 

About the project  

In Europe, professionals in cultural and creative fields face many challenges in securing sustainable employment and income. Their work often involves multiple and diverse activities, making it rare to have a steady income from just one source. There is a lack of supportive measures that address this specific group and its capacity for a more stable career. The project aims to provide innovative solutions and support for creative professionals with high levels of expertise in a fragile job market situation. At the program’s final phase in spring 2025, CreativeGPS will launch an open-access toolkit to share the best practices and insights gained with a broader audience.  

The CreativeGPS project partners are the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture NDPC, Tallinna Loomeinkubaator, and the Trade Union for Arts and Culture Professionals TAKU.   

Learn more about the project here.