Employers will often expect you to have a foundation degree, higher national diploma, degree or postgraduate qualification in:

• graphic design
• advertising design
• illustration
• fine art

With your degree you can apply for graduate training schemes in advertising companies.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

• 1 or 2 A levels, or equivalent, for a foundation degree or higher national diploma
• 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree

You could apply to do an apprenticeship, which may help you to get a trainee or assistant role with a company. They include:

• Junior Advertising Creative Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship
• Advertising Creative Level 6 Apprenticeship, leading to a professional qualification

These apprenticeships typically take around 2 years to complete and are a mix of learning in the workplace and off-site study.

Entry requirements

Employers will set their own entry requirements.

You can start as a junior creative to develop your skills on the job and work your way up through training and promotion.

You could get some experience before applying for your first job. This will give you a better understanding of advertising and is a good way to make contacts.

You could contact agencies directly to ask about volunteering opportunities. You could also make contacts on social media channels like LinkedIn.

You can get more advice on how to contact advertising agencies from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

You'll need:

• knowledge of media production and communication
• the ability to sell products and services
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• excellent verbal communication skills
• knowledge of the fine arts
• thinking and reasoning skills
• the ability to come up with new ways of doing things
• the ability to organise your time and workload
• to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

You could:

• work closely with a copywriter to create adverts that your client wants
• create storyboards or sketches of your ideas
• present your ideas to a creative director or account team
• choose studios or locations and attend photo or film shoots
  
• make sure that budgets and deadlines are met
• manage the final editing of the finished adverts

You could work in a creative studio, in an office or at a client's business.

Your working environment may be outdoors some of the time.