This blog has kindly been provided by Matt Dowling CEO of the Freelancers Club. Matt will be speaking at our Creative Graduate Futures event on 23rd April 2025.
Freelancing: the dream of creative freedom, flexible hours, and, if you’re lucky, the occasional payment. I learned the hard way just how precarious self-employment can be. In 2008, a trusted client who shall remain nameless disappeared into thin air, taking an £11,000 invoice (and my financial security) with them. That’s the synopsis of a 10 year photography career that I’m asked about more than anything else. I shot for Vogue and published a fashion magazine in New York, don’t you know! Upon reflection, it was the defining moment that has shaped who I am and, to be fair, there simply isn’t enough pain and anguish in career highs to make for a decent founder story.
Cut scene, that little debacle led me to establish my bootstrap company, Freelancer Club – an organisation that now supports nearly 100,000 freelance members, has helped tens of thousands of students and graduates navigate the freelance world, and has significantly improved graduate outcomes for our 30+ university partners.
Now, CHEAD has very kindly invited me to write a regular column, lifting the lid on all things freelance – dispelling myths, sharing insights, and offering advice that I hope will help HE folk become all-knowing freelance deities, or at the very least, help hit their KPIs!
When we talk about employability in higher education, the conversation is often centred around graduate jobs, employer partnerships, and the traditional 9-to-5 route. That’s perfectly rational. It’s how the system has been built. But for thousands of students, many of whom ply their trade in the creative sector, their future lies not in securing a permanent position, but in carving out a freelance career. Occasionally, this journey starts with a side hustle during their studies and, if nurtured correctly, leads to entrepreneurial wonderfulness. More often than not, however, graduates are sent into the world without the skills they need to succeed.
We see it year after year. The graduates who get a taste of entrepreneurship early on, those who test the freelance waters while still at university, often go on to develop their side hustle into a fully-fledged solo business. Some transition to freelancing full-time – sometimes by choice, sometimes because their industry offers them precisely zero alternatives. Others run their freelance work alongside a full- or part-time job, a delicate balancing act that keeps both their passion and their bank account alive.
And then there’s the majority. Graduates who never got exposure to business and core skills, or the mindset training to make freelancing a viable option. They flounder, scrambling for stability, often ending up in entirely different (and frequently non-creative) sectors. Not because they lacked talent, but because they didn’t have the fundamentals or confidence to run a business of one. And that, dear universities, is where you come in.
Are Universities Keeping Up with the Freelance Economy?
I’m undoubtedly preaching to the converted but for those in doubt, freelancing is no longer a niche career choice, it’s a thriving sector. Highlighting this cultural shift, a 2024 Santander X poll found that 76% of Gen Z adults aspire to be their own boss. Traditional office jobs simply aren’t a priority. AI is playing a transformative role too (for good and for ill), accelerating the rise of graduate freelancers and business owners as entry-level full-time roles become scarcer.
But let’s hone in on the creative industries specifically. The sector has long relied on self-employed talent, yet most HE institutions are offering little in the way of structured freelance support. Research shows that nearly half of creative graduates will go on to work freelance at some point in their careers, yet a survey of 500 recent university graduates carried out in 2022 by Opinium found that 80% of graduates believe universities and other educational institutions are failing to provide adequate tools, courses, and advice to equip students and graduates for freelance careers.
The stats may be about as uplifting as a wet Wednesday in November, but let’s give credit where it’s due – some institutions are absolutely nailing freelance support, and everyone benefits as a result. Take the University of Westminster. Seven years ago, they decided to stop treating freelancing like a side note in an employability brochure and actually invest in it. The result? Hundreds of students have since set up thriving freelance practices and entrepreneurial ventures.
Their HESA figures tell the story: back in 2016/17, their student startup numbers were an emphatic zero. Fast forward, and they’ve climbed the ranks to become the sixth highest producer of startups (mostly freelancers) across all UK universities. And if you’re wondering who’s leading the pack, that would be UAL. They’re miles ahead. When I sat down with one of their senior Enterprise Managers for our podcast, they estimated that a hefty 80–90% of their ‘startups’ are likely to be made up of freelancers.
What Do Graduates Need to Succeed as Freelancers?
So, what can universities do to better support their freelance-bound students? Three critical areas spring to mind that I would urge all institutions to consider.
- Practical Business Education, Mindset & Core Skills Training
The heady, thrill-ride of invoicing, pricing strategies, contracts, and taxes – otherwise known as that practical knowledge that separates those who thrive from those who spend their weekends trying to pay rent in ‘exposure.’
Getting students excited about business is no small feat. I’m reminded of a fine art student who, during a packed lecture on ‘Profiting from Your Passion,’ leapt to their feet and declared, “RESIST THE SYSTEM, EMBRACE THE IMAGINATION!”. The rebel inside of me massively respected it. However, I’m not sure he loved my response “if one does choose to pursue one’s creative practice as a professional endeavour, one must find ways to work within a neoliberal framework” as he walked out not long after.
Our top tip when it comes to increasing engagement is to work on your language. Ditch the business jargon entirely and focus on outcome-based terminology. Moreover, avoid ‘start-up speak’ entirely. Aspiring freelancers don’t ‘launch’ or ‘pitch’ or ‘raise’. Assume they are coming from a place of passion, not a place of profit. Their main objective is to do more of what they are good at, and step one is often convincing them that business isn’t a bad word but a mechanic to do more of what they love.
In addition to understanding the rules of business engagement, is the mindset and core skills that make or break a freelancer. We deliver as many sessions on confidence, resilience, imposter syndrome, self-belief, and communication as we do branding, marketing and sales.
- Early Money
The power of landing a paid job from someone outside of your inner circle (family or friend) is a profound milestone for new freelancers. The students experience a strong sense of validation that they have a value. It’s intoxicating. Moreover, it offers them an opportunity to learn real-world skills that are very difficult to teach in the classroom.
When I started out as a freelancer, I learned everything the hard way. I was confident enough to chat with potential clients and vaguely explain the value I offered their company, but ‘audience analysis’ wasn’t in my vocabulary. Pricing? Pure guesswork. Invoices? Hadn’t a clue. Registering as self-employed? That only happened when a client politely informed me it was, in fact, a legal requirement. And yet, 20 years on, this is still the reality for thousands of graduates every year – fumbling their way through the freelance minefield without a map.
Live briefs, paid gigs, and collaboration projects with external partners would allow students to gain hands-on experience, build their portfolio, and establish client relationships. Without this, new freelancers are left scrambling to find their first gig – often for peanuts – while their permanently employed friends smugly onboard with HR.
- A Shift in Perception
Freelancing is often viewed as a fallback option – a romantic but unsustainable dream that students will grow out of when they get a “real” job. If you still hold this belief, it’s time to re-evaluate. Particularly among grads seeking work in the creative sector, freelancing is their reality.
Actively champion freelancing as a credible, aspirational career choice by showcasing success stories, integrating it into career services, and ensuring employability metrics reflect self-employment outcomes. If a graduate builds a thriving freelance career, that’s a win, not a failure to secure a “proper” job.
A Call to Action for Universities
If universities truly want to prepare art and design students for the realities of the working world, freelancing needs to be taken seriously. That means embedding freelance education into the curriculum, running extracurricular programmes, offering ongoing support post-graduation, and shifting the narrative around self-employment from “risky” to “rewarding.”
The creative industries thrive on the talent, ingenuity, and unstoppable drive of freelancers. Higher education has a great opportunity to evolve, embracing self-employment as a core pathway and empowering students with the skills, confidence, and support they need to build successful, fulfilling careers.
Freelancer Club partners with universities to deliver tailored programmes and expert consultation, while also working with the government to shape policies that protect and empower the self-employed. If your institution is ready to lead the way in freelance support, let’s talk.