You want fries with that? Creative careers are still out there, for now

It's time to put to rest some of the lingering stereotypes about arts graduates career prospects.
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The old jokes about creative arts and humanities graduates serving at the local fast food outlet are hard to put to rest – they speak to long-held concerns around the value of creative degrees, and to worries that students of creative arts programs aren’t employable when they graduate.

But soon-to-be released national graduate tracking research findings conducted by my research team at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation show that, while Australian creative arts graduates can take a while to settle in to their careers, their outcomes are actually very good.

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Ruth Bridgstock
About the Author
Ruth Bridgstock is a Senior Lecturer and Transformation Fellow at Queensland University of Technology. Her research and teaching are both about the creative workforce. She is interested in the capabilities needed to navigate a successful creative career, and building higher education programs and professional learning experiences to support the development of these capabilities. She is also interested in the processes associated with research infusion into curriculum and pedagogic practice, and the facilitation of organisationally-based creativity and entrepreneurship within the creative sectors. Ruth co-ordinates the Bachelor of Creative Industries, the most popular course offered by the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT. Her teaching focusses on the topics of creative entrepreneurship and innovation, and career development for the creative sectors.