Upskilling
BTS KHYATI GATHANI FILMING ONLINE RESOURCES WITH VIDEOGRAPHER HEMI KIM FOR THE CREATIVE KIDS PROGRAM, 2020. PHOTO: YAMANE FAYED
About Upskilling
Creative skills training
One of ACE’s core activities is creative skills training. Based on our understanding of urgent and unmet needs in our communities, we ‘fill in the gaps’ of existing educational offerings, delivering culturally appropriate, affordable/free training in valuable skill sets, reducing disadvantage and improving creative and economic independence, one person at a time.
ACE’s First Nations team with our Dharug Knowledge Holders, are currently developing a suite of programs for Western Sydney’s First Nations Youth. Centred on ACE’s Still Growing Youth Collective, the On Country camps will focus on country and culture, while the Pathways to Employment Yarn Ups will be informal sessions with deadly First Nations creatives.
If you are First Nations, 25 years or under and live in Western Sydney and would like to check out these programs, contact [email protected]
Since 2015 ACE’s Barbershop program (which started at Granville Boys High School, in 2020 expanded to Fairfield High School and earlier this year to Bass High School) has provided intensive training in barbering and braiding. Barber Charles Lomu has a unique capacity to impart barbering skills and life lessons to young people.
Since 2018, initially under the name All Girl Electronic , and more recently New Age Noise Collective, ACE has offered training in electronic music production. Responding to the male bias of the industry, ACE especially fosters participation by LGBT+ and female musicians in Western Sydney. Sonic Souls Syndicate is the current iteration of this program.
If you live in Western Sydney, identify as female, trans or non-binary and want to enhance your electronic music production skills, contact [email protected]
Established in 2015, Club Weld, ACE’s program for talented neurodiverse musicians is based on the rationale that artists with disability have the right to pursue music, develop careers and be recognised as professionals. This non-therapy-based program supports musicians via collaborations between neurodiverse and neurotypical creatives; recording & distribution, performance opportunities and professional development. Club Weld delivers accelerated professional outcomes, income generation and social inclusion for vulnerable, isolated musicians who, on their own, face multiple, complex barriers to participation in the music industry.
If you live in Western Sydney, identify as neurodiverse, and are serious about your music, contact [email protected]
ACE’s Multicultural Womens Hub delivers creative, cultural and artistic training to Western Sydney’s migrant and recently arrived women. The Auburn Sewing Hub operates as a zoom class and is focussing on making decorative pillows with hand stitched embellishments. The sewing hub will keep on going throughout Term 3 and Term 4. Fariba’s Sewing group, based at the ACE venue in Parramatta, is led by Fariba Rahimi who works with older women from Iranian, Iraki and Afghani backgrounds. The group creates kitchenware decorative items such as table runners, pillows, quilts which they intend to sell at markets.
In partnership with the Parramatta campus of Sydney Community College, The Multicultural Women’s Hub is delivering Business Training, free/subsidised and accredited training in Food Safety Handling and Business and Workplace Skills Set training. With the business ResuMe Profile, the Program will soon be offering two-day training sessions in resume writing and job readiness skills.
If you are one of Western Sydney’s migrant/recently arrived women and would like to develop your creative business skills, email [email protected]
In 2022, ACE with TAFE NSW and leading screen industry partners commenced Screen Trades, a training program for screen practitioners from underrepresented communities. Supported by Screen NSW and Screenrights Cultural Fund, this slate of craft development and placement opportunities addresses shortages in key below-the-line jobs in the film and TV industry, and the underrepresentation of people from First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in these roles.
In August – September, in partnership with TAFE & Moneypenny Production Accounting Services, ACE delivered successful and popular short courses in Production Accounting.
In November, with partner Panavision, we are offering a brand new course in Assistant Camera.
Other training and pathway programs in development include VFX, Edit Assist and Location Scouting & Management.
If you’re an early or mid-career practitioner who could benefit from these programs, we’d love to hear from you. Contact [email protected]