Some of the mucky mucks at the college have suggested we look into creating a theater technician certification program. While this sounds like a good idea, I was concerned about how useful this certificate would be in the real world. I spent a lot of time talking with a variety of local theater professionals about the necessity of getting some sort of certification or a degree. I was stunned to find in my unscientific study that half the full time technicians I talked to, including the T.D. at one of the largest theaters on the west coast, don't have a masters degree. Furthermore probably a quarter of the people I talked to don't have a theater degree at all.
Yeah, I had a long talk with "the powers that be" explaining that in order to be a stage hand you don't need any sort of license or even any formal training in particular. Because of that I don't see that a college declaring you a certified stage hand is going to do any real good. It's far more important to be a hard worker, get on the list (if you want to go the IATSE route), and then just meet lots of people and work work work. The only certification that has any real importance is that rigging certification. And as has been pointed out in the past that's a bit of a mess too... because for everyone "certified" rigger there are at least 10 more who are far more experienced and knowledgeable and are too busy making money to waste their time taking the test.This is about the certificate that anyone cares about right now..
http://etcp.esta.org/
That's exactly what I'm saying Sharyn... education is a good thing. Theory for a designer is a great thing... just don't think the degree is the only way or that it will guarantee you better work and pay than someone with no degree. That just isn't true.I have no problem with additional education and degrees and certifications, having my own collection of advanced degrees, BUT I do think that there needs to be a careful balance, and that there are some programs that tend to over sell the value of the certificate or the program. It is certainly worthwhile to have the theory and the formalized programs, but it is easy to have programs that really lack currency of techniques, don't have instructors with extensive real world experience, and over sell to the students just what level job they are practically going to get right out of the program.
Sharyn