FAQs on Studying Art Online

You can enrol for our beginner’s courses immediately and get studying art online as soon as your payment has been processed. However, City & Guilds accredited courses are enrolled differently.

As we want to do our very best for all of our students and give them the best course experience possible, we only ever have a limited number of course places available, which is why you can’t just purchase them directly from our site. Instead, we collect ‘Expressions of Interest’ and when we have enough, we let everyone know when the enrolment day is and how many students we can enrol on our art course for the next cohort. This happens 4 times a year on average.

Enrolment is done on a ‘first come, first served’ basis online on a named day to make it as fair as possible. The students who have managed to secure a place are then given a start date, usually around 10 days ahead. Those who have applied but haven’t managed to secure a place are put on the list for expressions for the next enrolment date. This means that we can ‘collect’ a small group of students and have them enrol on our art and craft course at the same time so they can interact with each other using video chat sessions hosted by a tutor, blogging and social media. The enrolment process supplies us with your personal and payment information relating to how to receive your modules and submit your work. For more information please take a look at our blog about the Enrolment Process

Our craft courses for beginners are delivered to you via the Creative Classroom – a dedicated teaching platform – and are available to you immediately after purchase. Our accredited online textile courses will have a start date set for them around 10 days after successful enrolment has taken place. This doesn’t mean you need to start work exactly on that date, but it does mean that your course materials will become available to you and study groups will be set up.

No – there is no reason for you to ever visit the school whilst studying art and craft online on your chosen course.

Yes – every student who completes their City and Guilds accredited course gets a course certificate after they successfully complete their programme after they study textiles online. Those who complete one of our beginner craft courses or an SST’s Master’s Course will be issued a School of Stitched Textiles Certificate.

We produce all our own course materials and also train our tutors in teaching at a distance so you get the best possible support when you study textiles online. If you’d like to look at a sample of our course materials, please do contact us and we’ll be happy to let you have an excerpt.

Yes – our textile tutors are happy that they should be contacted if you need help with your course and are always available via email. However, if you wish to speak on the phone, we do ask that you drop us an email to arrange this first so that your tutor can review your work to date and look up any queries you may have before speaking with you. There are times when they will be teaching elsewhere or on holiday but in general, we aim to return feedback in less than 10 days. Your tutor will be in touch a week or so after you commence your course to introduce themselves.

Absolutely. There are lots of exciting career possibilities such as teaching in further and adult education, designing, authoring books/courses, working to commission, work in theatre, film or TV, depending on the level and subject you choose when studying art online. We’re happy to give you further advice so please do drop us a line. You may also like to look at our articles featuring the stories of several of our recent graduates.

No – you are not obliged to continue with your course (although most of our students do and we really hope you will!) or with paying the course fees if you decide you don’t wish or are unable to continue after you initially enrol on our art and craft course. We know that some students prefer to pay in full, as they find it motivates them to finish. In this case, you receive a substantial discount for paying the full fees upfront. However, you can also choose to pay for smaller numbers of modules to spread the cost.

You receive your course materials via email or internet download and compile and send a digital presentation of your work back to us via an easy file transfer service. You can choose to print out your course modules or simply view them online when you want to. As they contain links, galleries and how-to videos, you will want to view them at least once online to get the most out of them.

The main advantages are speed and cost; your tutor can receive your work and give feedback much more rapidly, as you don’t wait for parcels to be shipped back and forward (with the ever-present danger that they could go amiss in transit) and all that postage is expensive, so we estimate that there is a saving to the student of around £500 in postage alone by studying art online.

Online course students do have some extra expenses when they study textiles online if they wish to print off modules etc, but this is more than compensated for by not having to pay postage and packing costs when submitting work. We are very conscious that travelling of samples and paperwork is very harmful to the environment we live in, and with your help, are trying our best to cut down on this wherever possible. Online courses cut down by almost 75% the carbon footprint left by other forms of distance learning, although it is worthwhile stressing that distance learning itself is very environmentally friendly when compared with travel to traditional on-site classes.

For the longer Skill Stage 2 and upwards courses you will need a sewing machine, but unless the course specifies it (e.g. Machine Embroidery for Beginner course) you won’t for the Skill Stage 1 – beginner craft courses. 

All of our courses will require you to have basic materials such as needles, threads, yarn and fabrics (depending on which course you study. You can find  haberdashery shops near you over on our Stitch Directory who offer craft and textile art supplies. 

Basic Internet and IT skills are required when studying art and craft online, but specific tuition is given in video format for putting together a digital portfolio etc.

You will need access to a digital camera to record your progress (this could be your phone if you have a decent camera on it), and access to the internet to upload your images. If you are uncertain about studying art and craft online, we can certainly understand and have produced a complete guide to help you choose the right accredited course for you.

Students often ask us how much their sewing and design materials will cost when they study textiles online. It is up to students how much they choose to spend, as samples and completed pieces will vary from student to student, so the materials required to make them will also vary.

Costs can be kept to a minimum by using what you already have at home and shopping frugally in discount stores and charity shops for other items. However, some students love this excuse to go shopping for all new items. So this aspect can be as frugal or expensive as you wish – it’s up to you.

We need good-quality photographs of your work, which we can enlarge and examine in detail. Information about what is required will be covered as soon as you enrol on our art and craft course and study textiles online. However, there can always be the odd time when we can’t see something. In this case, we may ask you to re-shoot the photographs, or as a last resort – send in the piece of work. This is a very rare scenario and standards are never compromised.’

This has to be the aspect we’re most asked about and also the one we’ve worked hardest to get right. We have changed our enrolment method specifically so we can make sure a group of students start together and enrol on their art and craft course at the same time. This allows us to organise group blogs and group video chats, led by a tutor, for all the ‘newbies’. Most importantly, it helps students feel part of a group and supported by other students who are just starting their course journey too.

This is all in addition to a named tutor and helps to create much more of a classroom environment for students who study textiles online. Of course, we also have all the usual online social media groups and regular newsletters too, but if you don’t feel you wish to participate in them or join in with the video tutorials, you can still complete your course without doing so.