Pearson Education Ltd · RQF Level 3
Pearson BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Production Arts (QCF)
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 3
- Total credits120
- Guided learning720 hours
- Units in this qualification36
Awarded by Pearson Education Ltd · on the Ofqual register
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See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
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What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
These are the units Pearson Education Ltd registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Arts AdministrationReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Programme and market different performing arts products
- Apply financial planning and procedures
- Undertake appropriate internal and external communications
- Implement relevant legal requirements for a performance activity
Arts in the CommunityReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the range and nature of arts in the community
- Understand the skills and processes needed to run a community arts project
- Understand the roles and responsibilities within a community arts project
- Undertake roles in the setting up and running of a community arts project
Assistant Stage ManagementReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know the role and the skills needed to function as an assistant stage manager
- Work as an ASM within a production team
- Operate in an ASM role during a performance or event
- Observe safe working practices
Automated Stage LightingReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Rig automated equipment safely
- Carry out power and control circuit installation and connection
- Set up control systems to communicate with multiple fixtures
- Operate lighting controls during rehearsal and performance
Deputy Stage ManagementReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know the skills necessary to function as a DSM
- Apply the skills of a DSM during the rehearsal period
- Apply the skills of a DSM during a performance
- Observe safe working practices as a DSM
Design Drawing DevelopmentReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Produce work showing drawing skill from primary sources
- Develop observational studies from research material
- Use drawing to communicate specific information
- Produce experimental work using drawing to illustrate and expand information
Design Materials and ProcessesReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Research materials and techniques used to construct artefacts
- Develop artefact designs
- Realise an artefact
- Understand the suitability of the finished artefact
Design MethodReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know the characteristics of design materials, techniques and processes
- Generate design ideas for a production
- Realise design ideas
- Reflect on the design process
Developing Costume Design SkillsReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Understand costume requirements of a text
- Apply research skills to develop costume design ideas
- Understand the practical demands of costume design
- Communicate costume design ideas
Fantasy Hair Design for PerformersReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Research fantasy hair designs
- Know the hair design requirements of a performance
- Create design ideas for hair in a production
- Realise hair designs on performers
Full Body Make-up for PerformersReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Research and identify full body make-up requirements
- Create design ideas for full body make-up
- Produce and modify complete make-up on performers/models
Hair Styling and Dressing for PerformersReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the factors that affect hairstyle design
- Understand the hairstyle requirements for a performance
- Create design ideas for hairstyles
- Style hair for performers
Live Sound for the StageReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Recognise the particular technical requirements for a venue and performance
- Set up sound equipment for a live performance
- Operate sound equipment for a live performance
- Know about health and safety legislation as it applies to live performance.
Make-up Application Skills and Creative Uses in PerformanceReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Recognise the factors that affect the application of make-up on a performer
- Identify the make-up requirements of a performance
- Create design ideas for make-up
- Create make-up designs on performers
Make-up using ProstheticsReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Research and identify three-dimensional special effects make-up
- Design a three-dimensional special effects make-up
- Experiment with three-dimensional special effects make-up techniques
- Produce a three-dimensional special effects make-up on a performer/model
Marketing for the Performing ArtsReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know various marketing techniques commonly used by performing arts businesses
- Produce a comprehensive marketing strategy for a specific performing arts event
- Contribute effectively to a marketing campaign for a performing arts event
- Understand how to measure the success of a marketing campaign for a performing arts event
Performing Arts Events ManagementReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Understand factors that define a performing arts event
- Understand the impact financial and legislative requirements have on performance event
- Manage, monitor and evaluate a performing arts event
Period Costume for the StageReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know the requirements of period costume
- Develop period costume designs
- Realise a period costume.
Period Hair Design and Wig Making for PerformersReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Research period hairstyles and wigs
- Understand the construction methods used in the creation of wigs and hairpieces
- Construct and apply a small hairpiece
- Manage the wig requirements for a performer or production
Period Make-up for Performing ArtsReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Research period make-up
- Communicate make-up design ideas
- Use the techniques and skills required to create period make-up
- Interpret make-up designs and apply to performers
Period PropsReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know the style and characteristics of a period
- Source and acquire period props
- Construct a period prop for a performance
Production Arts PlanningReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know professional production roles and responsibilities
- Complete planning tasks for a production
- Fulfil a management role for a production
- Produce and use relevant production paperwork, documents and materials
Production Arts WorkshopReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know the role of the production team
- Develop ideas creatively
- Present production ideas in a workshop setting
- Understand the potential of the production process
Production Management for Live PerformanceReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Instigate the planning requirements of a production
- Manage a production budget
- Know the legislative requirements of a production
- Manage human resources for a production
Production for Theatre PerformanceReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Implement plans for a performance to an audience
- Know the requirements of an identified production role
- Undertake a production role
- Implement safe working practises when carrying out processes and using tools and equipment
Puppet Construction and OperationReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know the characteristics of different puppet
- Use puppet construction materials and puppet construction techniques
- Operate a puppets in performance
Puppet DesignReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know performance opportunities for puppets
- Know about different types of puppet
- Develop puppet design ideas
- Communicate puppet design ideas
Scenic Construction for the StageReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know the properties of set construction materials
- Know set construction techniques
- Apply materials and construction techniques
- Fulfil the role of set builder in a production team.
Scenic PaintingReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare scenic elements for painting
- Draw out design onto scenic element
- Demonstrate the use of scenic painting techniques on a large scenic element
- Demonstrate the use of detailed scenic painting techniques on set furniture
Special Effects and Animated Props for the StageReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know the range of available special effects
- Create a special effect for the stage
- Demonstrate the safe operation of a special effect
Stage Technical MaintenanceReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know the operation and maintenance requirements of theatre equipment
- Demonstrate skills in general technical maintenance and related health and safety processes
- Carry out the installation of equipment
- Set up a record keeping system for testing and repair.
Stage Technology InstallationReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Plan an installation taking into account appropriate regulations
- Demonstrate basic installation techniques in safely controlled circumstances
- Produce a documented plan for a small-scale installation project
- Draw schematic technical plans suitable for distribution to knowledgeable users.
Stage Wardrobe ManagementReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Manage equipment and materials used for costume production
- Manage the costume production process
- Manage costume care and dressing room management skills
Technical Stage OperationsReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Know about the technical skills used in the production process
- Apply the appropriate technical skills during the production process
- Perform as a technical operative
Temporary Stage Electrical InstallationsReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Collate and interpret information about product ranges and specifications of equipment
- Carry out calculations to determine loading and phasing
- Install, connect and test equipment in a distribution system
- Construct a safe working item of circuit distribution system with protection device
Visual Imagery for ProductionReal unit · Pearson Education Ltd
What you'll be able to do
- Produce visual imagery for performance
- Incorporate visual imagery into productions
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 3 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- Apply shaders for visual effects
- Apply techniques to performer's hair to create a different appearance
- Carry out evaluation of your arts activities
- Control the overall planning of productions
- Create drawings to meet production requirements
- Demonstrate knowledge and experience of using your art form to support participants to engage and develop in their chosen arts activity
- Design community arts projects for specific groups and individuals
- Engage Participants in Community Arts Activities
Where this can lead
Production Coordinator
Your journey here starts with mastering the details and making things happen. The path ahead is full of opportunities to take on bigger challenges, lead teams, and shape the future of our events. It's a demanding but incredibly rewarding career for those who love bringing experiences to life.
See the whole journey →Showing 6 roles, drawn from 28 job records mapped to this qualification.
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your work in any of these jobs
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for Pearson BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Production Arts (QCF)
36 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by Pearson Education Ltd.
- Arts Administration
- Arts in the Community
- Assistant Stage Management
- Automated Stage Lighting
- Deputy Stage Management
- Design Drawing Development
and 30 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.