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SAE Magazine 12-2

We want our graduates to become champions for us in the greater media industry.” SAE traditionally works closely with industry. How did he see the student / employer relationship being facilitated by SAE in the future? “We can only remain applicable by delivering what the rap- idly evolving creative media industry demands. With the ever-changing hard and soft technologies and techniques this is certainly an on-going pro- cess and a practical challenge that we revel in. We mitigate many potential issues or mismatches be- tween industry needs and the education and train- ing deliverables by the continual interfacing and consultation with various industry sectors. We in- vite industry leaders on to our academic and ad- visory boards and design our curriculum to meet their needs. Importantly, (and this also goes back to the competitive advantage question) SAE / Qa- ntm have always been quite nimble and quick to adapt. We can upgrade and adjust our curriculums and training (at relatively lightning speed com- pared to many major universities for example) to meet almost any creative industry requirement or standard.” Creative industries are growing at a faster rate than the world economy in general, representing 7% of global GDP. Recent analysis shows that the UK’s creative industries for example will take centre stage as a major, high-growth contributor to the economy over the next 5 years and by 2013, the UK creative industries will grow on average at 4% – more than double the rate of the rest of the econ- omy. In the United States along with a number of other major economies (eastern and western alike) the statistics are proving to be even more exciting. Hawatt says: “It’s the same scenario across the world. Every government in major and develop- ing countries are waking up to the need to develop their creative media industries. There is a grow- ing realisation that these industries are also key contributors to the development of their respec- tive societies and increasingly, with the right level of public awareness and government support this particular industry growth can be stellar. This of course drives the increasing awareness and need for education and this is where we step in and pro- vide mutual benefits.” “Go ahead and do a search on the creative media industry and see what comes up! It’s the world’s largest industry in the making and eventually, will far exceed every other industry by way of people employed and revenues. I believe that almost all sectors of business will eventually need (won’t be able to do without) creative media trained people. Look at the way computers, hardware and support- ing software, mobile communications, the Internet and multitude of levels of entertainment and adver- tising have all crept into our everyday lives already. It is explosive growth we are talking about over the coming decade and beyond.” Is there a course in the SAE / Qantm education offering that stands out for you? “Each course we offer is really great and falls within it’s own specif- ic category, discipline and industry demand. Audio, Film, Animation & Games Programming for ex- ample can all be very specific and very specialised career paths notwithstanding the overlaps i.e.Audio in Film & Animation etc.” “What I find personally very exciting is a proposed new offering (which we have been developing and testing) which picks up a little of all of the fore- going areas along with the addition of journalism, marketing and a bit of business all with a modern applicability. It is about digital storytelling or more precisely, ‘digital content creation’ under what we are currently calling ‘Cross Media Communications and Publishing’.” “Whatever name we end up marketing the new course as in the long term, it is essentially about in- dividuals being trained up to create content across the key creation platforms and packaging the same for the market. ➤ Flying high, SAE’s Romy Hawatt pilots his helicopter 24 SAE & SAE Alumni News // Featured Profile Index

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