3 minute read
Education
Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3
Suffield invites students on an audio-visual journey
Throughout the 119K Commission and extensively in the Young People First plan, key stakeholders and commission members pointed out the importance of workforce development. Not only would this benefit the state, with tens of thousands of open jobs, but it provides income and structure to young people. Key among workforce development criteria is training in jobs that will be needed — at Suffield High School, they are doing just that with their audio-visual program.
Depending on who you ask, the first movies were created 130 years or more ago and the first audio recordings a staggering 150 years ago, and since then, jobs in these worlds have been in high demand, but ever evolving. Far removed from “talkie” Hollywood pictures, these days podcasts, videos, and livestreams are an indispensable tool for just about anyone with a message to spread or an audience to reach. (You may have even caught an episode or two of CCM’s own Municipal Voice).
Although this technology is becoming more and more accessible to the amateur user, a select few individuals are finding this to be a professional career path. And that’s where Suffield steps in.
The Suffield Public Schools Director of Technology Becky Osleger was part of a profile in CT Insider on her efforts to combine the task of preparing audio and visual operations during Board of Education meetings with on-the-job training programs for Suffield High School students.
Quoted in that piece, she said that the students “would set up and operate different pieces of the AV equipment, like the microphones, visual screens, presentations. They would learn how to ensure that there’s high-quality sound and that the video is high-quality for live meetings, and even the recording so that if someone couldn’t attend the meeting, they (would have) a really good, high-quality sound and visual experience.”
Statistics cited from the Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown that this field has grown in recent years — thanks to the aforementioned podcasts and streaming — but it would continue to grow over the next decade. In Connecticut companies like ESPN are hiring staff that know the technical aspects of a good AV setup.
These opportunities are few and far between for people starting up outside of school, and with this type of work, there’s only so much “book learning” you can do — you really need to get into the field with an XLR cord and a ¼” adapter, some gaffers tape and the right kind of microphone to make sure that the system works. With the right training, you could be working for Disney in a few years, or even better, for the right creative, you can be working for yourself. If this Suffield initiative is a success, plenty of students will at least have that chance.
