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Creative Short Courses

Evening, weekend and summer courses for beginners, improvers, and professionals.

Whether you're a designer, an artist, a marketer, or a seriously creative type searching for a new challenge, come and get inspired!

Find your perfect short course with NTU

Take a short course that'll ignite your creative spark into a fully blown flame. You’ll have access to the same tech, tools, and experts as our full-time students, on courses designed to suit your needs, lifestyle, and other commitments.

On all of our courses, you’ll get:

  • a fun, inspiring learning experience, with a teaching team drawn from the University’s own lecturers, technicians, and industry experts
  • real flexibility, with evening, weekend and summer classes to fit your schedule
  • access to our world-class facilities and equipment.

Our subject areas

Maybe you’re looking to take your first steps in something brand new; maybe you want to upskill an existing talent; maybe you want to supercharge your CV for a change of career. Whatever your plan is, browse our courses to embark on a new learning adventure.

If you'd like to discuss which course is right for you, or if you have additional questions, we'd love to help! Just email or give us a call on 0115 848 2813.

Architecture and Interior Design short courses

Find out more and book your place on one of our Architecture and Interior Design courses including Interior Design for Beginners, CAD for Interior Design and Blender 3D for Architecture.

Creative Writing short courses

Find out more and book your place on one of our popular creative writing courses spanning beginners courses to more specialised sessions in comedy, memoirs and copywriting.

Design and Digital Arts short courses

Find out more and book one of our courses in design and digital arts spanning animation, design software, graphic design and illustration.

Fashion, Textiles and Costume short courses

Find out more and book your place on one of our fashion, textiles and costume courses including fashion design and making, leatherwork, knit and CAD courses.

Fine Art short courses

Discover your inner artist with contemporary painting and drawing courses and experimental techniques in life casting, sculpture and metalwork.

Journalism, Marketing and PR short courses

Find out more and book your place on one of our specialist courses for marketing and communication professionals, journalists and web designers.

Photography, Film and Television short courses

Find out more about our creative short courses in Photography, Film and Television. From darkroom to digital you can chose from beginners courses to more specialised workshops for professionals.

Product Design and Furniture Making short courses

Find out more and book your place on one of our product design and furniture making courses.

Know when you want to start your course?

Creative short courses in action

We get it, you're a visual person! Watch the video below to get a feel of what it's like to be on a short course at NTU.

Video credit: My Town Vision. If you like this you can learn more from tutor Tom Dennis on our  Video Making for Marketing and Communication course.

Don't just take our word for it

The numbers don't lie - 99% of students who've joined our creative community now want to complete a second short course at NTU. We think that's a big endorsement.

Here's what previous students have said about the courses they've attended:

‘I chose this course because I wanted to develop my skills and enjoyed the whole experience, loved every minute. The balance of completing creative writing exercises and having a dialogue and discussion was perfect, and I was always inspired every week. I met a group of lovely like-minded writers and plan on staying in contact to follow each other's writing journeys.'  Creative Writing for Beginners

'Excellent course, so much information learnt and skills that I have developed. Inspirational tutor, magic!' Acrylics Now

'Dawn was fantastic, inspiring and enthusiastic. There wasn't enough time in the day, it was so good, I could have done more of everything. Highly recommended.' Botanical Drawing and Illustration

'It's been one of the best courses I've ever attended. Full of content, time and space to develop and be creative. The tutor was incredibly helpful and generous with sharing knowledge.' CAD for Textile and Fashion Print Design

'Carl's depth of knowledge, expertise and willingness to pass on skills was excellent. I particularly enjoyed how many machines we got to use. It was all fantastic! I wish I could keep coming back every Saturday.' Furniture Making Workshop

'This course has inspired me to pursue graphic design and illustration in my future professional life. The tutor was great, they had seemingly endless patience, it was a privilege to be taught by them.' Adobe Illustrator 

“I just wanted to say how excellent (truly excellent) the course was and how much I enjoying it. I’m learning SO much! I loved the space we were in, the BA studio, very inspiring to be in a space where art is made and there's evidence of that all around.' Children's Book Illustration

'Really hands on. I felt like I learned a lot of useful information in a short space of time – and I can definitely apply this to my work. It's really great - would love to do an intermediate course.' Adobe After Effects for Motion Graphics

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