From studio-based Music Engineering, Television and Radio Production and Drone Technology to simply creating content for social media such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, there has never been a time that creativity was more accessible or affordable, and Florida Panhandle Technical College in Chipley, Florida is offering a total immersion program designed to prepare adults and high school students for careers in any of those areas.
Offering Open Enrollment to Junior and Senior high school students as well as adults seeking new career opportunities, the program is taught in a hands-on real-world working environment, featuring live studio music production, green screen video production, drone photography and video, hands-on mastery of cameras and photographic processes, and live radio production, and the program is receiving community interest.
This week kicked off with photo and video documentation of campus activity, interview recording skills, studio photo work and audio production, and the students are wasting no time in gaining real-world, hands-on experience in these technologies.
‘For those who may not want to perform in public or who prefer a supporting role behind the camera or microphones, we are addressing engineering and pre-production, camera operation, editing and post-production, and for those who want to spread their wings we are featuring on-air news casting, interviewing and even live radio show hosting, so there is literally something for everyone’, says Instructor Paul Goulding.
The program was spawned during the Summer of 2019, as local 9-12 grade students were offered a free program inclusive of all these career skills in a condensed, week-long format titled ‘Creative Summer Sessions’.
‘We took the opportunity, with the fiscal participation of Wells Fargo and the College’s Foundation, to offer the six-week program’, says FPTC Director Martha Compton, ‘and Goulding, who had been teaching adult Photography classes, took the ball and ran with it, developing what we now see as a viable career-path experience, and we are excited to offer it to the community’.
A recent FPTC staff visit to Poplar Springs High School added several students to the dual-enrolled FPTC program schedule, including the new Digital Video Technology Program, and Goulding is hoping to visit all area high schools over time to speak to career counselors, students and staff about the new opportunities afforded by FPTC.
‘We could not do this without the support of our School District and the public’, says Director Martha Compton, and we have realized very quickly that we are just scratching the surface of what is possible’.
‘Washington County School District Career Counselor Ciara Jones has expressed interest in our concept’, says Goulding, ‘and with her and other staff help, we will be filling these classes soon, so interested students and adults should contact FPTC, dropping by Student Services at 757 Hoyt Street in Downtown Chipley, or by visiting the FPTC website at www.FPTC.edu or by simply calling 850-638-1180 extension 317 on Monday through Friday from 8AM until 3PM for information’.
