The value of Media Studies Degrees

Dr Bex Lewis posted an extract from A Times Educational Supplement article about Media Degrees and I have posted the following as a comment...

Don't get me started on Media degrees. well you have, I do't have a problem with a Media Studies degree "as an object of academic study" as long as graduates don't consider, or get sold the idea, this will prepare them for a career in the media industry because it won't. 

The industry is fed up of people leaving uni with a media degree and expecting to enter the industry at a higher level or even at an entry level, at which point you have to ask what was the point of a 3 year degree course especially from next year! My experience as an industry practitioner and sometime involved in training at both apprenticeship and degree levels, as well as talking to key staff involved in finding new talent, is that very few media degrees actually prepare students to work in the industry without significant additional training. 

The industry has got so fed up, it has put its money where its mouth is and set up a range of apprenticeship schemes so it can train and prepare students with the skills needed.  

You talk about transferable skills and the skills you list are transferable IF they were delivered and developed properly in university, but experience leads me to believe they rarely are. 

We find these practical skills are rarely delivered in a real world and current way, rather they are dealt with in a generalised unrealistic way and students believe they are being prepared for a career in the media industry and I am afraid a lot of universities are letting their students down badly. 

For example, I delivered a Media Induction Course for a dozen cohorts and the first 8 or 9 cohorts were largely graduates with a variety of media degrees and I have lost count of the number of times they would tell me that they learnt more in that 9 day course about working in the media industry than they did throughout their 3 year degree course. 

A Media Degree shouldn't be a soft option. To prepare students for the relatively small number of opportunities in the media industry, it should be a tough course learning a range of practical skills in the first and second years and specialising into a specific area in the 3rd year. Media is a very practical and hands on industry. This needs universities to employ a broad range of associate lecturers who remain active practitioners in the industry so they can deliver current and future practice. The industry is changing so fast that someone who has left the industry even 3 years ago will be out of date.

BBC anounce applications for new apprenticeship scheme

BBC North has announced its new apprenticeship scheme. From their web site...

BBC North is delighted to launch our new entry-level apprenticeships. If you’re aged 16 and over, live in the Greater Manchester area and have left formal education and not gained A Levels or equivalent qualifications, then our new Apprenticeships provide you with the ideal route of entry into the BBC.

Running for 12-18 months, Apprenticeships at the BBC combine college learning with full time paid jobs. You’ll find all that you need to apply on this webpage, so check through all the information on how to apply below, and head to the right side of the page to read the job descriptions for exciting new apprenticeships at BBC Learning, BBC Marketing & Audiences, BBC Technology Operations, BBC Head Quarters North and BBC Children's (roles at BBC Children's are only open to those who are 18 years of age and over.)

You will be based at our new location at Salford Quays. When you've completed your apprenticeship, you'll not only have had valuable work experience to help you get started in your career, but you'll also have a chance to apply for a permanent position at the BBC.

This will be a specific job in a specific department and will be day release to college. It is being run in conjunction with Manchester College and will be overseen by David Longworth who is now working for the BBC. Also please note the salary scales £8K per annum for 16-17 yrs old, £11.1K per annum for 18 + yrs old which works out at around £154 per week for 16 to 17 year ols and £212 for 18 plus. 

The closing dates for applications for all posts is on 8th July at midnight.

More info, including job specs here

C4 unveils £5m gaming push aimed at 10 to 19 year olds

Channel 4 is to plough around £5m into a raft of games and apps that will encourage youngsters to consider finance, ethics, attraction and death. The 10 multiplatform projects have been commissioned by Channel 4 Education.
The services span a range of platforms, including console gaming, online games and mobile apps as C4 Education bids to reach youngsters in all digital places they consume content. 

As part of the range of commissions, C4 has earmarked three specifically for 10-to 14-year-olds following its extended remit to cater for this target demographic.   The orders follow C4’s decision to ring-fence its 2010 investment in education of £4m, along with an additional £1m injection specifically for 10-14s for 2011.
Alice Taylor, C4 commissioning editor for education, said the aim was to provide engaging content for the target demographic of 10-19s. “Covering a fantastic range of formats and platforms, the projects are varied and fun whilst still tackling useful and important subject matters,” said Taylor. “As usual we aim to represent teens – and now tweens – in their best light, and to continue to find new talent and recruit UK independents in the drive to provide public service content of the very highest quality.”
Speaking about Channel 4 Education's general remit, Taylor said it is "committed to the public service remit of reaching teenagers and young people with content relevant to their tastes and as such the budget is ring fenced". Taylor defended the public service remit of her department and its shift away from traditional term-time morning slots, which reached 70,000-80,000 viewers, to more experimental games and projects on the web and on mobile. The annual education budget of £4m for 14- to 19-year-olds is to be supplemented with £1m for 10- to 14-year-olds as a result of the government's Digital Economy Act earlier this year.
She said the department was "not only allowed to but expected to fail in some areas". "That's the merit, the point of public service to try something not that's not commercially proven or that doesn't exist yet," added Taylor.
"Luckily we're having a lot of success with our stuff but without public service you would only do what is commercially viable. We want experimentation, diversity innovation and something for the public benefit, to make products that are about helping somebody or making them feel better."
Taylor said that in the two years since Channel 4 changed its education strategy there is "no doubt" that it reaches a more suitable audience, but added that reaching that audience online presents different problems. "It's a challenge to get things noticed – publishing things on the internet is like chucking them into the sea, rather than a river."

Education

The news this morning has covered the potential revision of university education as the costs have apperntly increased and are placng too higher burden on the state finances.

I am getting increasing frustrated about the pressure for more and more people to have to go to university to get a degree to stand any chance of getting a job.

Why do we have to do this. There has always been a proportion of our young people for whom an acedemic univeristy education is not the right solution and yet they feel presurised in going so as to get a good job.

I didn't go to university, instead I served an apprenticeship at Marconi Communications Systems Ltd in Chelmsford, Essex because my dad (who was in a position to know) said it was the best scheme in the country.

I am involved with the Advanced Media Apprenticeship, which is in its 3rd year up here in Manchester, and enabling young people who wouldn't have had the opportunity to undertake a proper 18 month block release apprenticeship and are getting real jobs in this sector. However, although there is a push by government to resurrect the apprenticeship scheme following its decimation in the last recession  it doesn't yet seem to be having a positve affect on young people's expectations.

I would also add this to the UK's lack of respect for engineering and science. It was reported on BBC Breakfast this morning that we are only filling 50% of the science posts from home grown talent. The guy from Dyson was at pains to point out that if we want to get out of the current mess then we will need to start to innovate again and return to the place where we punched above our weight.

So we need to make engineering and science a respectable career as we do with other professions like law, teaching etc. In Germany they respect their engineers and in my business they have a phrase for someone who works in sound as a Tonmeister.

So come on folk respect and value your engineers and scientists and lets not force everyone to have to get a degree to get a job. Let us train people for the jobs they are going to do. Surely it is a "no brainer" as industry will get people you can do the job rather than people who can talk about it.