Career Schools have enjoyed a resurgence of late, especially in the creative fields. In the media arts, most especially, your diploma won't guarantee you that you will not start at the bottom of your chosen profession - no matter how prominent the school is. True, many careers in media and arts need a degree or a license - like a beautician and an architect - but many actually do not. You would be more than happy to learn that many careers in the media and arts do not make education as a requirement. You may ask, why should you spend all your time and money on something that isn't really needed and something that will only get you an entry level job?
The answer varies from one individual to another. This journey can be likened to learning how to swim. You learn swimming either from being thrown into the deep end and you figure out for yourself or you'll be guided by a teacher on a step-by-step process. The deep-enders may be able to bypass school entirely and get hired after graduating from high school. The majority of the pack, however, would well benefit from the formal school and the structured curriculum that is offered only through a teacher.
You could choose from numerous career schools. They vary largely in cost, attendance requirements, and method of teaching. Traditional schools - college, university, community college - come with a classroom and an instructor. There are specialized career schools, what used to be referred to as vocational schools, that are more like workshops than classroom. Online schools, alternatively, offer classes with the internet as the medium. Then there's that hybrid educational system that's modeled from the learn-by-doing method. This kind of "school" provides lots of hands-on learning under the guidance of a mentor and is usually done for a short period of time only. Another version on the learn-by-doing method is called work/study. For the entire school year, you'll spend half of that studying and the other half, working in a company. Antioch College is one such school.
Certainly , books and a classroom may give you the theories of a media and arts career but these cannot truly prepare you for what is going to happen in the real-life. Then there is that overwhelming digital era - where changes have been coming in and out fast. By the time a course curriculum is written, distributed and finally taught, it may already be outdated. Therefore, it is important, no matter what kind of educational model you decide is best for you, that you get some real world exposure to your chosen career goal. Exposure means having a field trip or having access to arts and media organizations.
Starting a career in the field of media and arts is not as easy and as structured as 1-2-3. Remember, these are creative fields. Therefore, be creative, figure out what works for you, think outside the box, investigate the choices and go for it. We have categorized the
career schools in SchoolsforMe.net by the things we think are important to your decision making process. The best of luck!
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