Preperation for Career Development Material

To understand how much preparation goes into Personal Career Development Material for the media industry, I’ll have to research into how someone finds out what is available in the industry and what education and training is required to be accepted at that level of work in the industry.
One of the first items that are important for Personal Career Development is to find out what education and/or training is required, in order to be considered for a job in the media industry. There are many different qualifications that can lead on to a job, a few are undergraduate degrees which can lead into the media industry, which themselves require at least 2 A-Levels and a BTEC National Diploma. A Film Production degree at university level allows for both the qualification and the necessary experience for working in film, whether its screenwriting, director, cinematographer etc these can be worked on for a student to specialise in for their perspective job in the media industry.
Having the right skills is also important for applying for a job in the media industry; certain positions require the right skills in order to be considered for employment. This works with some courses at University ask for you to specialise in one area of the film crew, going for this one area works for the person’s advantage for when applying to work. Some of these skills can consist of personal skills i.e. working in team, this doesn’t necessarily mean production work but it does help, generally working in team can build respect and a good working relationship, having these sorts of skills will make working on production easier by having that respect if you were director for example. Technological skills like being able to work with cameras, lights and even editing software are paramount if you want to have a job in the film industry, most of this would have to come from experience but it initially can be taught how to use the equipment/software. This is probably one of the biggest requirements for applying for work in the industry and having some knowledge and experience, whether a employment opportunity comes along, would make you stand out among the other applicants for the highly contested job.
In order to know what is available in the media industry, there are sources of information that help with this, examples of this include ‘Runners’ Network’, a website set up for people looking for work experience on production for this particular site its running work. Being a runner gives you first hand experience what happens on a professional level, knowledge can be picked up from seeing what happens or speaking to people on what they do. Another source of information, which can help for finding the right course for the qualification you need, is Skillset; it’s a Sector Skills Council that allows people to search what they are looking to do and finds the right course they should apply for, with appropriate links and qualification requirements for the course.
In conclusion there are many different ways to advance your Personal Career Development Material from finding a course that would give the right qualifications, experience with working with certain equipment and in a team which will give you an advantage over other hopefuls and having actual work experience in a professional production. All these factors are important for having the right material for your career development.