LT270-5-SP-CO:
Go Freelance
2025/26
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Monday 12 January 2026
Friday 20 March 2026
15
21 February 2025
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA P595 Journalism and Language Studies
Students should have some knowledge of what creative industry freelancing career they may want to create after their studies to able to fully apply the teachings of this module.
This module aims to help students understand the means to create and successfully manage a freelance career as a viable post-study option for employment and income.
Students will gain understanding of value creation, how to build a customer base, pricing and selling and identify key considerations around cost structures and revenue streams. Students will develop an awareness of how a freelance business operates and how they can navigate changing opportunities in the creative industries.
Through this module, students will understand the process of building and sustaining a freelance profile and best practice in acquiring and completing paid work.
The aims of this module are:
- To introduce freelancing as a viable post-study career route within their chosen industry
- To provide students with the understanding of how to undertake independent research within a freelance business context
- To introduce students to creative problem-solving techniques in order to convey their value proposition
- Introduce students to the European Framework of Entrepreneurial Competencies and explain the importance of self-reflection and self-assessment
- Enable students to engage with entrepreneurial skills to enable long-term and sustainable financial career options through freelancing
- Consolidate skills and understanding developed throughout their LiFTS degrees, including research skills, application of knowledge on chosen subject areas and the real-world context application of a revenue generating idea.
By the end of the module, students will be expected to:
- Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of being a freelancer, write reflectively about the connection between their academic and creative skills, and the creative industries.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the principles of freelancing and how to support themselves as a freelancer.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the creative industries from critical and theoretical perspectives as well as practical engagement.
- Know how to develop a freelancing plan, identifying routes and resources.
- Be able to present and discuss their ideas in a group.
Transferable Skills
- Synthesis and bringing together concepts and ideas
- Creative-Critical thinking
- Recognise and conceive entrepreneurial ideas
- Analysing academic and business literature
- Teamwork
- Understanding how to present successfully and confidently
- Core IT skills (writing tools, accounting, presentation tools)
Indicative syllabus
- Entrepreneurial Mindset
- Setting up as a freelancer
- Your Values as a Freelancer
- LiFTS: The arts and cultural industries
- Customers
- LiFTS: A Freelancer’s Story
- Marketing and Brand Identity
- Presence and community
- Working as a freelancer and scaling
This module will be delivered via:
- Ten 2-hour workshops
- Three 1-hour voluntary drop-in sessions
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Reflective statement OR Business Plan |
|
65% |
| Coursework |
Individual Presentation (Week 10) |
|
30% |
| Practical |
Participation |
|
5% |
Additional coursework information
The written assignment is either a reflective statement on the knowledge gained on how to become a sustainable creative practitioner within the cultural industries or a freelancer business plan on how they would move forward if they were to open their business based on the knowledge gained over the module.
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
No
Yes
No
No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.
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