If properly prepared, there are great opportunities in communications

Immersion University has been established to help prepare students, recent graduates and mid-career professionals for successful employment in communications.

At Immersion University, we offer two low-cost but powerful techniques at the very opposite end of the educational scale, from new school to old school approaches.  The “new school” tools we offer are those contained in our online, multimedia training in both live and on-demand format. On the other end of the scale, we offer one of the oldest kinds of education – internships or work-study.

A recent survey of employers found that most do NOT believe that the typical university student is adequately prepared to go to work for their respective organizations. About 90 percent of them feel that mass communication and PR/marketing graduates are not getting enough hands-on experience. Over 90 percent of the employers also conclude that at least one professional internship should be REQUIRED, and a majority of those offering their opinion feel that multiple internships would be better.

While this was a survey of nearly 800 media and PR/marketing executives specifically, the problems that beset those students is common across most fields. Universities very frequently do not respond to the needs of the industry but rather provide a very “ivory tower” form of education. Specifically in the field of communications, your potential employers want more practical training and are willing to help by providing internships. Let’s look at the survey results:

Percentage of executives who expressed an opinion
in favor vs opposed to these ideas

QUESTION	PRO	CON
1) Mass communication students need more hands-on experience.	99%	1%
2) University mass communication graduates are well prepared to handle a professional position in your organization.	36%	64%
3) Mass communication education would be improved with a required professional internship.	99%	1%
4) Every mass communication student should be required to serve a professional internship of at least 4 months.	93%	7%
5) Every mass communication student should be required to serve a professional internship of at least 6 months.	68%	32%
6) Every mass communication student should serve multiple internships in different media.	56%	44%
7) Our mass communication organization does or is willing to provide UNPAID internships.	79%	21%
8) Our mass communication organization does or is willing to provide PAID internships.	48%	52%
9) If liberal arts graduates took one intensive journalism skills course and served a professional internship, I would be just as likely to hire them as a mass communication graduate.	56%	44%
10) University mass communication education needs to be totally revamped.	59%	48%
11) University mass communication education would do a better job by providing one year of general education, two years of intensive mass communication training, and a one-year professional apprenticeship.	83%	17%
12) I would be interested in hiring mass communication graduates as yearlong apprentices at lower pay while we help complete their professional training and consider whether to offer a permanent position.	71%	29%
13) If a university and a news organization teamed up to launch a 4-year work-study apprenticeship program where students would work about 6 hours a day as apprentices and then study 6 hours a day using journalism as a general education learning method, as well as a set of professional skills, I would be interested in hiring graduates from such program.	88%	13%

Let us highlight the most important points made by these executives:

• 56% of communication executives say you do NOT need a communication degree at all if you undergo one intensive training course, followed by a professional internship – not as good as what Immersion University provides for our Master of Entrepreneurial Journalism program or our Master of Modern Marketing, which involve two years of practical work-study training.
• Why don’t they prefer communication graduates? Because only 36% think journalism graduates are adequately prepared for a real job anyway. What do they lack?
• 99% believe students need more hands-on experience.
• 99% think students would be better prepared by serving an internship.
• 93% wanted the internship to be at least 4 months long.
• 68% wanted the internship to be at least 6 months long.
• 56% wanted students to serve multiple internships with different media.

To facilitate a combination of practical theory and hands-on practice, Immersion University has partnered with IEI-TV Network, and about 30% of your training is in the form of either internships or practicums within your own multimedia IEI-TV franchise website. If you apply our training well, your IEI-TV franchise could be worth more than $100,000 by the end of the two-year program.