This policy is intended to establish and maintain clear standards of good practice for employers, volunteer organisations and opportunity providers using Brookes Creative to promote full and part-time job vacancies, work experience, placements, live projects and other opportunities, to students, staff and alumni of Oxford Brookes University.
The information provided in this Policy is not intended as advice by Brookes Creative and is intended to provide general guidance only and cannot be taken as an accurate statement of the Law at present. For further sources of information on UK employment law see the resources section at the end of this Policy.
To find out about ways to engage with School of Arts students, staff and alumni and raise your profile on campus please visit our Employers Section or contact: brookescreative@brookes.ac.uk.
Who are we?
The School of Arts brings together skilled filmmakers, fine artists, graphic designers, musicians, photographers, journalists, publishers and beyond to form an inspiring, dynamic community of creatives. Brookes Creative promotes opportunities to our students and recent graduates, who come from a diverse and wide range of backgrounds and cultures.
What do we do?
Brookes Creative facilitates engagement with employers and other opportunity providers by:
- promoting the University, its students and graduates, to a large and diverse range of employers within the Creative Industries;
- proactively maintaining relationships with employers and updating knowledge of their recruitment and selection practices;
- advertising suitable graduate vacancies, placement opportunities, live projects, part-time or temporary and voluntary roles;
- organising ‘on campus’ and online events to include talks, discussions, networking opportunities, presentations, workshops and screenings, where our resources permit.
In addition to the services provided by our colleagues in Brookes Careers, Brookes Creative further supports the promotion of opportunities specific to the Creative Industries that enable School of Arts students and graduates to:
- acquire new and develop existing skills and sector knowledge;
- demonstrate their value to employers;
- make new industry contacts that will benefit them in their career;
- sample particular sectors, employers and types of work within the Creative Industries.
How can we support you?
There is a large cohort of students within the School of Arts who can bring a range of skills, experience and help increase the capacity of your organisation. We offer a free brokerage service to promote opportunities, paid jobs and mutually beneficial work experience roles and live projects within the Creative Industries to our community of students, alumni and staff. We also run on-campus and online events, such as the new Creative Industries Careers Fair, and take part in wider University events including Thrive Festival. We also host a dedicated website and Instagram account to provide our community with relevant resources, advice articles, interviews, videos, podcasts and case studies.
Constructive collaboration with Brookes Creative:
To enable us to provide an optimum service to you we expect all employers and opportunity providers to:
- Provide us with accurate, up-to-date information about their opportunities and businesses, including timely and adequate details of vacancies (such as: nature of the work offered, any necessary skills required, proposed wages, duration, location etc).
- Only advertise specific vacancies that are available.
- Meet all UK statutory legal requirements for those opportunities subject to UK law. In particular employers are reminded of the need to consider the following:
- Payment of the UK National Minimum or Living Wage, as appropriate; The Working Time Regulations (including holiday entitlement) and the Equality Act 2010. For international opportunities, providers are responsible for ensuring any vacancy complies with employment law and meets good practice in their relevant jurisdiction.
- Be aware of students’ study obligations during semesters and, as a guide, should not ask full-time students to work in excess of 15 hours per week, except during vacations or other periods when a student does not have the usual pressure of study.
- Let all applicants know the result of an application as soon as possible or to state that ‘only successful candidates will be contacted’.
- Satisfy themselves as to the suitability of any prospective employee (including their eligibility to work in the UK) and to be responsible for taking up any references, etc, before engaging individuals.
- Provide feedback on employment related events and projects organised by Brookes Creative or Oxford Brookes University, when requested.
- Complete paperwork as requested in relation to Health and Safety for students on placement or work experience as part of their studies
Top tips for working with our students:
- Students are flexible, but will only be able to take on opportunities that fit around their academic studies and other commitments – such as part-time work.
- The academic year is split into two semesters. A high number of students leave Oxford and return home during University vacations. Please refer to our semester dates.
- Students have an intense assessment period in December and May/June, so engagement may drop off at these times.
Brookes Creative’s Opportunities and Jobs Board
Our Jobs and Opportunities Board offers companies, organisations and providers the facilities to advertise vacancies and relevant opportunities for free, including:
- Placements – for students on their placement year.
- Work Experience – for students still studying other modules at the same time.
- Internships – for students between semester and vacation periods.
- Live Projects or Project Based Learning – for students to undertake within their programme and in negotiation with the academic teams. (Refer to our Live Lab page for further details).
We define these different types of opportunities on our Opportunities Explained page. We may also post graduate training schemes and vacancies, as well as part-time and temporary jobs at our discretion.
We will aim to action opportunities posted online, via our website, within 5 working days. Vacancies are posted on the system for a maximum of 3 months, in the first instance (subject to renewal).
We do not normally accept emails from webmail account providers (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail) although we may make exceptions on a case-by-case basis.
Please be aware that it is our policy not to promote unpaid jobs unless there is a clear explanation as to why a company or organisation believes the opportunity is not subject to the national minimum wage. For example, legitimate volunteering* or internship opportunities. We expect all community partners to adhere to these guidelines.
If your opportunity is not specifically relevant for the creative industries it might be better suited to Brookes Careers or Brookes’ Volunteer Portal. You can find further guidance about the distinction of volunteering and voluntary work on the NCVO website.
Advertisements for opportunities are accepted by Brookes Creative on the understanding that providers agree to comply with the requirements of our general Website Terms and Conditions.
Other important considerations to note are:
UK and International Law
Laws regarding employment status and payment are complex. Brookes Creative expects recruiters, employers and work experience providers to have checked that any vacancies submitted for advertising comply with all and any requirements under English or International law, whether under statute or common law, including but not limited to the requirement to make payments of the National Minimum Wage/National Living Wage (National Minimum Wage Amendment Regulations 2016 – effective 1 April 2016) and to comply with the Equality Act 2010. By submitting a vacancy, opportunity providers are warranting and indemnifying that:
- (i) the vacancy complies with such legal requirements and agree to indemnify Oxford Brookes University for any losses which it may incur in connection with any vacancy submitted including any failure to comply with any legal requirements;
- (ii) No employment agency relationship exists with Oxford Brookes Careers;
- (iii) there has been no breach of the Equality Act 2010 in any advertising copy provided, or in the intended terms and conditions of engagement.
Unpaid Opportunities
*We adopt NCVO’s definition of volunteering as “any activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone (individual or groups) other than, or in addition to, close relatives.” In line with UK employment law and developing good practice Brookes Creative will normally only advertise unpaid internships or work experience opportunities of up to 4 weeks duration. On an exceptional basis, we may advertise unpaid internships of up to a maximum of 12 weeks duration, but only if we deem them to be appropriate, in all the circumstances prevailing, for our students and alumni.
Recruitment Agencies
We can only accept advertisements from recruitment agencies, where a specific vacancy exists. For us to approve a vacancy from a recruitment agency they will need to supply us, in confidence, with the name of the actual employer on whose behalf they are recruiting.
Up-front Fees
We cannot advertise vacancies that require any ‘up-front’, out-of-pocket fees, or roles that are paid on a ‘commission only’ basis.
Multi-level Marketing Schemes
We cannot advertise vacancies which are part of multi-level marketing schemes, also known as pyramid selling, networking marketing and referral marketing where the revenue of the company is derived from a non-salaried workforce and the earnings of the participants are based on a commission system.
Suitability and Reputation
The advertising of vacancies by Brookes Creative does not imply approval or recommendation. We do not advertise posts that we consider unsuitable for students and recent alumni, or which might possibly bring Oxford Brookes University into disrepute. We may refuse to advertise further vacancies from any organisation or provider which breaches this understanding and, at our sole discretion, remove (or not publish) posts which we consider to contravene UK law, or to be otherwise unsuitable.
Useful Resources
Official sources on payment and employment status in the UK provided on a non-exhaustive basis for your information only:
-The National Minimum and Living Wage: www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage
-Employment Rights and Pay for Interns: www.gov.uk/employment-rights-for-interns
-ACAS Types of Employment Status: www.acas.org.uk/checking-your-employment-rights
-The Living Wage Campaign: www.livingwage.org.uk/good-for-business
-Oxford Living Wage Campaign: www.oxfordlivingwage.org/what-is-the-oxford-living-wage