NAIT College - Edmonton

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NAIT College - Edmonton

Postby dustinandrew » Tue Jun 17, 2014 12:57 pm

Wasn't really sure of where to put this... please move to appropriate sub forum if necessary

Applying to NAIT (The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton, Alberta) for their radio program starting Jan 2015. Was wondering if anyone here went there or has any information on it
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Re: NAIT College - Edmonton

Postby jon » Tue Jun 17, 2014 1:28 pm

I can't speak for the present, but a few years back there were some real issues with the program at NAIT, where students were not even being taught some of the key basics of announcing, like how to breathe when saying more than one breath's worth of words.

The best way to get current information is from the employers who are seeing the latest grads that actually were able to follow their chosen career path: find someone at a radio station who has actually hired a NAIT grad or two recently, and see if you can find out from them the good and bad of NAIT Radio training.

For example, The Goat in Lloydminster used to have NAIT interns and may even have hired some of them fresh out of school after their internship. http://borderrock.com/

As I say, check around, as all my info is several years out of date. Telephone may not be good enough; you may actually have to visit some stations to get the kind of candid response you are looking for.

On a related issue, Marty Forbes recently told me about a talk he gave to a national conference of broadcast educators, on most broadcast school's failure to teach the use of Social Media as a part of both a radio station's and a broadcaster's essential toolkit.

Finally, from personal experience, I would say that going into a post-secondary program with your eyes open, as to what the program is lacking, can work quite well if you make up for those deficiencies in your spare time by doing self-study, etc. Of course, it is important to mention those areas of self-study in your resume, so that savvy employers will not pass you by during the hiring process.
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Re: NAIT College - Edmonton

Postby dustinandrew » Tue Jun 17, 2014 1:39 pm

Great! Thank you for the info
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Re: NAIT College - Edmonton

Postby Howaboutthat » Tue Jun 17, 2014 4:01 pm

I'm sure there are a few of us in here who would like to know, when there are so many people with years of experience, who are out of work, why you would consider radio.
Houston, We're dealing with morons!.
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Re: NAIT College - Edmonton

Postby dustinandrew » Tue Jun 17, 2014 4:15 pm

I've worked in radio since I was 15. I'm 24 now but never went to school for it and that seems to be holding me back.

Apparently my nine years of experience doesn't mean anything and they want me to have schooling

I just moved to Edmonton from Ontario a few weeks ago
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Re: NAIT College - Edmonton

Postby Rocky » Tue Jun 17, 2014 4:55 pm

dustinandrew wrote:I've worked in radio since I was 15. I'm 24 now but never went to school for it and that seems to be holding me back.

Apparently my nine years of experience doesn't mean anything and they want me to have schooling

I just moved to Edmonton from Ontario a few weeks ago



Wow. this is the opposite to everything I've ever heard.

What can they possibly teach you in a trade school that you haven't learned in 9 years of on the job experience?

Used to be if you could flee NAIT, SAIT, BCIT (or wherever) before your course was done for a job in the real world, you'd grab it and be on your way.

I'd do some serious talking with Edmonton and surrounding smaller market stations about the situation before signing on the dotted line.

Anyone willing to give you some P/T work while you'rer going to school (at your expense)?
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Re: NAIT College - Edmonton

Postby jon » Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:51 pm

Rocky wrote:
dustinandrew wrote:I've worked in radio since I was 15. I'm 24 now but never went to school for it and that seems to be holding me back.

Apparently my nine years of experience doesn't mean anything and they want me to have schooling

I just moved to Edmonton from Ontario a few weeks ago



Wow. this is the opposite to everything I've ever heard.

What can they possibly teach you in a trade school that you haven't learned in 9 years of on the job experience?

Used to be if you could flee NAIT, SAIT, BCIT (or wherever) before your course was done for a job in the real world, you'd grab it and be on your way.

I'd do some serious talking with Edmonton and surrounding smaller market stations about the situation before signing on the dotted line.

Anyone willing to give you some P/T work while you'rer going to school (at your expense)?

Back in 2002, I had the time and kept an eye on all the radio job ads that were posted over about a four month period. Most required a broadcast degree or diploma, and many of those would NOT accept experience as a substitute.

At the time, it seemed to coincide with the larger corporations where headquarters HR folks had standardized things. And saw no difference between an announcer and an accountant, so required that both have a relevant degree or diploma, no matter how much experience they have under their belt.

As for dustinandrew's situation, a couple of additional points now that I know more details on his background:
  1. I'm assuming that you don't want to work for the CBC, as they require a University degree
  2. A few years back, when I was being told about problems broadcasters were having with NAIT students, I was also told that Mount Royal College had the best program in the province for Radio, and SAIT also turned out decent grads
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Re: NAIT College - Edmonton

Postby Howaboutthat » Tue Jun 17, 2014 8:04 pm

dustinandrew wrote:I've worked in radio since I was 15. I'm 24 now but never went to school for it and that seems to be holding me back.

Apparently my nine years of experience doesn't mean anything and they want me to have schooling

I just moved to Edmonton from Ontario a few weeks ago


Sadly, with HR departments controlling the hiring in the clusterf**ks, that's the way it seems to be. Some well-meaning person who doesn't know thing-one about broadcasting, deciding who gets hired. You haven't said what you've been doing so far.... everything?
It was suggested earlier to try a smaller market. I'd agree - make a few calls to find out if the hiring.is done locally.
I'm tempted to use the old'get out while you're young enough to learn something else' - but then I think back to how eager I was at your age about the biz.
I still hope that talent counts for something - and if you have it, I wish you the best.
Houston, We're dealing with morons!.
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