The International Association of Broadcasting Manufacturers has launched the IABM Training Academy, dedicated to broadcast and media technology.
The new body aims to provide vocational training for engineers and technologists, as well as the administrative, managerial and executive staff whose job roles require an appreciation of the important role that technology plays in the broadcast industry.
‘Emerging technologies, new business models, and changing social trends are creating new business and career opportunities within the broadcast industry, but they’re also revealing a chronic shortage of skilled technical resources,’ says Roger Crumpton, Director of Education, Employment & Training at the IABM. ‘Employers need a resource for developing and training their workforce to meet the challenges of the new media business, and the IABM Training Academy offers just such a resource. The IABM Training Academy delivers training outcomes that impact the futures of managers, engineers, and technologists in our industry.’
Because courses target staff at different stages of their careers, they provide broadcast and media companies with a tool for developing their own human capital more effectively.
Classroom courses typically last two or more days and offer ‘highly intensive training that not only optimises instructional outcomes, but also reduces the time and cost required for attendance’. Online courses, which are delivered via the IABM Learning Management System and cover a similar syllabus, allow participants to fit their training around work and personal commitments. Online tutor support is available throughout the courses.
The first courses from the IABM Training Academy are Broadcast and Media Technology – Understanding Your Industry and Audio and Video Fundamentals for Engineers, which will be offered in Reading (UK) beginning 22 and 28 June respectively, and in Amsterdam beginning on 29 September and 5 October.
The academy will continue to roll out new courses held at sites worldwide on a quarterly basis. It already has kicked off its course offering with a free online course introducing participants to 3D and how it works for TV and the cinema. More than 100 viewers registered for and took advantage of the course during its first week of availability at the IABM Training Academy website.
‘The 3D module is excellent in all regards, from the media player itself to the explanation of key points and issues,’ says Roger Thornton, Head of Publicity at Quantel. ‘This first online course from the IABM Training Academy serves as a very fine preview of what’s to come, and it’s no wonder that it has given the launch of this exciting new educational resource a great boost.’
The IABM Training Academy fulfills one of the calls to action made in the IABM Lifelong Learning Manifesto announced earlier this year. The document, signed by more than 90 leading media companies and industry organizations, signifies a commitment to creating genuine career development opportunities for broadcast and media technologists.
More: www.iabmacademy.org
More: www.theiabm.org
