Breaking into the creative industries can be a daunting task, whether you're a graduate ready to flex your creative muscles or a freelancer paving your way onto the scene. To support emerging creatives, Adobe has launched Adobe Creative Apprenticeship – a new program that provides new talent with mentorship, networking and job opportunities with Adobe and its leading brand partners.
While conventional education can hone your Adobe software skills, information on mastering the art of networking, self-promotion, pitching, and more is scarcely available. Offering real-world experience and a chance to learn from industry professionals, Adobe's apprenticeship scheme is an invaluable resource in today's creative sphere – a golden ticket into the industry.
To learn more about the program, we sat down with Eric Snowden, SVP of Design and Head of Adobe Design, to discuss the benefits of Adobe's latest initiative. “This is a program that we're really excited about. It's about helping people get into the creative industry. It's about Adobe giving back to people and to creatives,” he told Creative Bloq. “We're going to be working with creatives directly, giving an opportunity to have Adobe as a client, to get real-world experience, to get paid."
Access to Adobe's Creative Apprenticeship is available on Behance via Adobe's new Career Resource Center. It features a variety of free resources, including courses, articles, and live-streaming discussions about practical soft skills, bridging the gap for emerging talent.
“The industry is constantly changing, and we see an opportunity. With the new hiring platform we have on Behance, we have a great platform to leverage this, which we didn't have in the past." Eric says. "We’ve been working with students and emerging creative professionals through our community event programs, and we’ve heard consistently from this audience that they’re in need of the type of soft skills training and career opportunities that the apprenticeship program is designed to offer."
Creatives can also apply to work on a paid Adobe-commissioned project, collaborating directly with Adobe teams to bring their ideas to life for a real client and audience while building their portfolios. “When you're applying these commissions up front, you'll see exactly how much you’ll get paid," Eric says. That's something that's always a challenge for creative professionals – making sure you're getting paid what you're worth – people are doing real work for companies, and they deserve to be compensated. Even when they're learning, they're contributing value. We believe creative work has value, and those people should be compensated. We want to set that expectation from the beginning.”
