Applications are open!
DG Unlimited Members! Are you an early-stage creative freelancer, sole trader, or small business? Are you making a pivot in your career and looking for support to take the next step? We’d love for you to apply for Raise Your Game National – a Scotland-wide skills development programme led by Creative Edinburgh with support from Creative Scotland.
Bringing together 35 creatives from across Scotland for eight online sessions, an in-person introductory day, and a final Insight to Industry event, the programme covers everything from business planning and marketing to finance, project management, and design thinking. You’ll finish with practical skills, a stronger professional network, and direct access to employers, festivals, and agencies from across the country.
Applications are open from 6th-20th July.
Raise Your Game is a Scotland-wide skills development programme for creative freelancers, sole traders, and early-career practitioners. Delivered in partnership with Creative Scotland and six incredible creative networks across the country.
What Is Raise Your Game National?
Raise Your Game National scales our proven Raise Your Game model (four years strong here in Edinburgh) out across Scotland. Led by Creative Edinburgh and funded by Creative Scotland, the programme is delivered in partnership with six creative networks – Applied Arts Scotland, Creative Dundee, Creative Glasgow, Creative Arts Business Network (CABN) DG Unlimited and OnFife. It aims to give freelancers, early-career creatives, and returning professionals in those communities access to the same kind of practical, high-quality skills support our Edinburgh members have benefited from for years.
The programme is designed for early-stage freelancers, sole traders, small creative businesses, and anyone making a pivot in their creative career.
How the Programme Works
Each cohort brings together 35 participants from across Scotland – six from each of the partner networks – for:
- An introductory session, bringing the cohort together for orientation, goal-setting, and networking
- Eight online sessions, structured across three chapters – Taking Stock, Making Moves, and Thinking Forward – covering business planning, marketing, finance, project management, data, legal awareness, open source, and design thinking
- A final Insight to Industry session, connecting participants with employers, festivals, and creative agencies from across the country
Participants also get access to a bespoke digital resource hub, a Mentor Yourself Toolkit, and up to 26 weeks of post-programme guidance from the Creative Edinburgh team.
Programme Registration is open to DG Unlimited members, and members of the partners networks listed above, from 6th July – 20th July 2026