Daisy Johnson

After finding a job that I loved, leaving to go to a conventional university was never an option for me, but I had a desire to keep learning. The Open College of the Arts was the perfect solution to this. The things that I am learning during my course are helping me improve both at work, and as an illustrator.

With the OCA, I feel that personal development is just as important as hitting the criteria for assignments. Something which I have yet to experience in traditional education. The support and feedback I have received from my tutor has been exceptionally helpful.

Having the freedom to work when is most convenient, around any other commitments you may have, is something I didn’t think was possible with further study. I am finding I have more free time than previously thought, and am using it to benefit myself and my career. I think the flexibility is one of the best parts about the OCA.

Independent learning is also something that works really well for me. The freedom may seem daunting at first, but through exploration and evaluation I am learning more and more each day.

Although I am still in the early days of my OCA journey, I can see that this is going to be an invaluable learning experience. I feel evermore excited to continue with each exercise and make use of the OCA’s student publishing opportunities that are on offer. In light of this, my work has been selected to be used within the new OCA prospectus. This includes 1000 printed copies distributed across the globe as well as an interactive digital booklet which has had over 1500 views in the first week! You can find my work here: https://issuu.com/home/published/oca_prospectus_2019_digital