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Careers support

Last updated 22 November 2024

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There are a number of ways the RCA can help support you to develop your career. Advice and practical discussions on aspects of business and creative careers are built into the programmes of many of our MA degrees, and upon graduating many alumni continue to be supported by InnovationRCA.

In our 2024 Graduate Careers Report 74% of RCA alumni said that studying with the College has enabled them to pursue their career ambitions. 9 in 10 working RCA alumni said that they have been able to apply the skills and knowledge they acquired at the RCA to the work they do today. And 83% rated the RCA ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ for at least one element of how the institution prepares students for life after university, such as careers advice and support, exposure to industry, sector-specific skills development and networking opportunities (RCA Graduate Careers Report 2024).

Careers advice

Our Student Support team offers a careers advice service during your studies, with a dedicated advisor available for one-to-one sessions. These are available to students and graduates for individual help with career choices, planning, and skill development. Support is provided both online and in-person.

Our careers adviser will help you to identify strengths, values, priorities and help develop the employability skills to navigate your career goals.

Everyone starts from a different place, and professional careers support can be helpful for all stages of individual reflection and planning. This includes help with early-stage thinking through ideas (including when you’re stuck or have no ideas at all), developing different sets of approaches, and detailed planning to target applications to individual employers.

In addition to one-to-ones, the RCA Careers Service also runs several online and in-person employability workshops and lectures aimed at helping you build a toolkit of employability skills which will support you at various stages of your career.

Current students can view upcoming employability workshops and book appointments via Moodle. You can also contact the Careers Advisor at careers@rca.ac.uk.

The RCA is not part of any combined careers services.

IP advice and support for start ups

If you want to found your own company, the expertise and guidance to support you to do so is available through InnovationRCA – the College’s centre for student and graduate enterprise and entrepreneurship. Housed in our state-of-the-art new Battersea campus, InnovationRCA supports our community to transform compelling ideas into successful businesses – providing incubation, intellectual property and commercialisation support.

InnovationRCA offers a business and intellectual property advice service to current RCA students.

In addition, InnovationRCA has supported 120 graduates to launch 84 start-ups with £145 million raised in investor funds.

Start-ups founded by RCA graduates supported by InnovationRCA include: Knit Regen, founded by PhD Womenswear Design candidate Laura Salisbury, which creates wearable tech to aid rehabilitation in stroke sufferers; Olombria, founded by Tashia Tucker (MRes RCA, 2017), an early stage agricultural technology company enhancing pollination rates and crop yields by working with wild pollinators; and Pentaform Computers, founded by Samuel Wangsaputra (Information Experience Design MA, 2019), a modular, accessible and affordable computer housed within a keyboard.

Find out more about InnovationRCA.

Ethical Careers

Across the College, engagement in sustainable practice is a core thematic consideration and our community is dedicated to building a more sustainable world for all, which is reflected in our Environmental Policy and Responsible Investment Policy. The RCA’s commitment to a sustainable future additionally underpins the Careers Advice provided and the careers service’s relationships with third-party employers.

The RCA applies the following exclusion criteria to third party recruitment opportunities facilitated by the Careers Service, including events organised by the Careers Service, and digital and physical advertising managed by the Careers Service. These criteria were last reviewed in June 2023, and signed off by the Chief Operating Officer (the COO is a member of the Senior Management Team).

These exclusions do not impact the impartiality of factual, evidence-based one-to-one careers guidance which careers advisers provide to students.

Ethical Careers Exclusion Criteria

The following exclusions apply to third-party recruitment opportunities facilitated by the Careers Service.

  • All fossil fuel companies, including:
    • Companies that provide evidence of owning shale gas reserves including those that own less than 50% of a reserves field.
    • Companies that provide evidence of owning oil sands reserves including those that own less than 50% of a reserves field.
    • Companies with revenue derived from shale oil or shale gas production.
    • Companies with revenue derived from oil sands, oil shale, shale gas, shale oil, coal seam gas and coal bed methane.
    • Companies that provide evidence of producing gas using hydraulic fracking.
    • Companies that provide evidence of producing oil using hydraulic fracking.
  • All mining companies.
  • Tobacco companies, including:
    • Companies that manufacture tobacco products, such as cigars, blunts, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, inhalers, beedis, kreteks, smokeless tobacco, snuff, snus, dissolvable and chewing tobacco.
    • Companies that grow or process raw tobacco leaves.
  • All arms companies, including:
    • Companies that manufacture key biological and chemical weapons components.
    • Companies that manufacture cluster munition whole weapons systems. Companies with any industry tie to cluster munitions.
    • Companies involved in the production of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, ammunition, and armour, including companies that manufacture armour piercing, fin stabilised, discarding sabot tracing rounds (APFSDS-T); Kinetic Energy Missiles made with DU penetrators; and DU-enhanced armour, including composite tank armour.
    • Companies that have any industry tie to the manufacture of landmines except for Safety, which is a positive indicator.
  • Companies whose policies, practices and record on human rights and labour standards are identified as failing to respect the established norms.

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