Graduate Certificate in Arts Education and Community Engagement

at Centennial College - Story Arts Centre Campus Canada

The Lifestyle Media program is a one-of-a-kind graduate certificate offering designed to train specialized media professionals who are at the hub of lifestyle media.
In this media program's courses, you'll effectively collaborate with real-world industry partners, clients and audiences to produce quality content for web, social media and traditional media platforms. You'll also gain the skills necessary to work entrepreneurially using contemporary digital media platforms and technologies to market yourself as an independent brand.
Lifestyle communicators are subject-matter experts who are able to take their passion and depth of knowledge to reach behind-the-scenes and share these worlds with audiences that want to both learn and be entertained. Successful lifestyle communicators influence trends and tastes and can become trusted sources of reliable information.

Program Highlights

• The interdisciplinary Lifestyle Media curriculum will include writing, visual communications, social media and entrepreneurship.
• You'll gain the ability to develop sector-specific expertise in areas such as fashion, beauty, food and health.
• There will be a strong focus on social media and web production, including analytics and measurement.
• You'll participate in an industry field placement in an area of your interest.

Centennial College’s Museum and Cultural Management program offers an applied, learner-centred curriculum to help you develop the skill set needed to manage the programs and resources that preserve and publicly present the cultural and natural heritage of our civilization.

Courses in this Graduate Certificate program cover industry-based subjects, museum administration topics and in-depth explorations of contemporary issues and cases in Canada and abroad. Core theory is applied to current workplace realities. Assignments, lessons and student placements are linked to the vast network of museums in Ontario and Canada.

The Museum and Cultural Management program has fostered numerous partnerships with local, provincial and national institutions. Professionals from the field act as advisors, guest lecturers and field placement supervisors. Through our network, we will help you find the ideal field placement setting for your career development.

Not-for-profit museums, art galleries, science centres, aquaria, archives, sports halls-of-fame, artist-run centres, zoos and heritage sites attract more than 59 million visitors annually. A further 60 million people visit Canada’s historic sites and natural parks each year. Upon graduation, you will be prepared to work in this industry, at one of the 2,500 museums and related institutions in Canada or abroad.

Please note: This program requires you to have and use a mobile computing device that meets or exceeds the recommended hardware and software requirements. For more information, please visit Mobile Learning Programs.

Program Highlights

• You learn from professionals who have current knowledge of the industry.
• Training is complemented by a 7-week full-time field placement 
• The Story Arts Centre, located close to downtown Toronto, provides opportunities to collaborate with students in photography, broadcasting, music, art and theatre programs.
• The Museum and Cultural Management program's practical, hands-on and entrepreneurial approach prepares you for sustainable heritage sector-related careers directly upon graduation.

Centennial College's Graphic Design program prepares you for a multidisciplinary design career, and has a graduate employment rate that exceeds 80 per cent. Facilitated at the Story Arts Centre, the courses in this advanced diploma program take a hands-on approach in an intimate studio environment, rather than having you sit passively in large lecture halls. With small class sizes, you have lots of opportunities to work one-on-one with your professors.

In this college graphic design program, you:

•  Master industry-standard Adobe software including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign
•  Learn creative problem solving and design thinking
•  Design for print, including advertisements, magazines, books and packaging
•  Design responsive websites, mobile apps and create exciting motion graphics
•  Explore drawing, photography, illustration and type design
•  Learn professional practice skills to land a great job or start your own design business
•  Contribute something unique and innovative to the design community in a thesis course
•  Learn on the job and get course credits through an industry field placement in your final semester
•  Interact with industry professionals
•  Become a student member of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (RDG Ontario)
•  Learn from professors who are current and professionally active in the design industry

Please note:This program requires you to have and use a mobile computing device that meets or exceeds the recommended hardware and software requirements. 

Program Highlights

• The Centennial College Graphic Design program is formally recognized by RGD Ontario, which represents more than 3,000 graphic designers, managers, educators and students across Ontario.
• A combination of multidisciplinary design skills and practical experience sets you apart from the competition.
• You will be more flexible in your design solutions and more desirable in the marketplace.

The Graphic Design program will develop your abilities to:

• Think creatively and design effectively for print, motion, and interactive media.
• Execute your ideas professionally in any medium.
• Communicate effectively with employers and clients.
• Start your career in any facet of the design industry.
• Market yourself as a freelancer or start your own business.
• Affect social change through your design problem-solving skills.
• Understand all aspects of industry standard workflow, from initial creative, through to print production or interactive prototyping.

The Art and Design Fundamentals program nurtures your artistic talents, and develops your creative, practical and entrepreneurial skills in visual art and design — whatever your level of expertise.

The studio-based, hands-on curriculum of the Art and Design Fundamentals courses is taught by practicing artists and designers who help you to develop traditional, digital and multimedia skills. The program's goal is to help you prepare a successful portfolio of artwork required for admission to specialized programs and to open up new possibilities and career choices in the diverse visual arts industry.

In this art program, you:

• Get hands-on exposure to drawing, design, colour, 3D modelling and design, visual culture, video making, digital illustration, photography and rapid prototyping.
• Build a comprehensive portfolio of artwork while working one-on-one with faculty.

Once you complete the program, you will be prepared to succeed in a variety of post-secondary communication arts and design diploma and degree areas, including animation, game arts, digital visual effects, product design, industrial design, architecture, interior design, fashion design, illustration, graphic design, digital media art, art direction, art management, creative advertising and fine arts.

Program Highlights

• Leading practicing artists, designers and educators have crafted the Art and Design Fundamentals program at Centennial College.
• Small class sizes and a dynamic working relationship between faculty and students allows for lots of one-on-one instruction and feedback.
• The Portfolio Development course sees you work on self-directed projects that focus your future career, with individual guidance from instructors.
• The Professional Practice course offers client-based community projects that emphasize experiential learning and allow you to develop your entrepreneurial skills.
• Throughout the Collaboration Studio Course, you have the opportunity to work on collaborative projects with other students at the Story Arts Centre to gain real-world experience.
• Artists and professionals who need to improve or update their skills in art, design and digital multimedia are offered a flexible curriculum, if class size allows.
• Faculty members help each student individually to take the next step in their career path.

The Animation - 3D program at Centennial College runs for 16 consecutive months and, in that time, prepares you to successfully launch a career in digital animation.

Created in 1996, this animation program takes place at the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design. Its intensive approach has become internationally recognized, on top of kick-starting the careers of hundreds of talented digital artists.

The 3D Animation program focuses on production-style training and offers a unique project-based learning experience that is applauded within the animation, visual effects and game industries. You'll develop skills for careers in animation, film, television, broadcast design and games.

Program Highlights

• The Animation - 3D program gives you 24-hour access to computer labs and workstations.
• Subjects covered also include life drawing, acting for animation and storyboard training.
• Class sizes are small, at a maximum of 21 students per class, giving you the opportunity to work closely alongside industry professionals who collectively have amassed more than 1,000 hours of instruction.
• Training is enhanced by industry-leading guest speakers, participatory workshops and company studio tours.
• You are assisted in producing demo reels that showcase your abilities to potential employers.
• This School of Communication, Media, Arts and Design program boasts an industry field placement. While this opportunity is unpaid, it lasts eight weeks and offers valuable on-the-job training and industry contacts. You will be provided with a list of Toronto studios accepting interns. When seeking industry field placement opportunities, you will be required to make direct contact with animation studios.
• An active alumni network allows you to build your own list of industry contacts.

In Centennial College's three-year Journalism program, you gain the skills you need to navigate and succeed in a changing industry. By going from the classroom to the newsroom, you come to understand the multifaceted and fast-paced journalism industry, which focuses on interesting people, places and things.

In this advanced diploma program you:

• Cover a variety of topics while developing the critical foundation skills you need for the industry.
• Apply your newsroom skills to an award-winning community newspaper, a news website and radio-television news, all of which makes you versatile and industry-ready as soon as you graduate.
• Develop new multiplatform skills for the evolving world of news reporting.
• From covering breaking news to exploring human interest stories, as a journalist you will be responsible for reporting events, interviewing newsmakers and examining the issues of our times.

Please note: This program requires you to have and use a mobile computing device that meets or exceeds the recommended hardware and software requirements. 

Program Highlights

• You experience one-on-one interaction with faculty members in an ultra-modern, professional newsroom.
• The Story Arts Centre campus, where the Journalism program is facilitated, offers you access to publishing, broadcast and Internet facilities.
• Hands-on, real-world experience is available through award-winning community media, including the East York Observer newspaper, Freshly Pressed magazine, the Toronto Observer news website, radio and television newscasts available online.
• With a stellar faculty, whose combined credits include NBC News, CBC News, CTV News, OMNI, The Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, National Post, Globe and Mail and more, your journalism training is relevant, demanding and highly effective.
• You connect with excellent faculty, mentors and guest speakers and get to partake in exclusive field trips.
• Through the field trips and your field placement, you have the opportunity to make exclusive news media connections.

The Professional Writing – Communications program will prepare you to work as a versatile communications professional. This graduate certificate program will combine assessing audience needs and delivering thoughtful and relevant content with effective project management techniques as you develop the skills to write and produce copy for a variety of professional settings and styles.

The innovative courses in this program will encompass a wide range of communications disciplines and vocational skills, including:

• Web copywriting
• Technical writing
• Proposal writing
• Writing for social media
• Content marketing
• Presentations and speech writing
• Content management
• Information design and data visualization
• Digital storytelling

As a Professional Writing – Communications student, you'll have the advantage of creating a diverse and professional portfolio that will include training modules, complex visual aids (such as infographics) and compelling layouts for various print and virtual platforms (brochures, newsletters, websites and more). With your well-rounded training, you'll be able to launch a writing career that will go the distance, taking on a range of roles in both the profit and non-profit sectors.

Film and Television – Business is a unique program offered by the School of Communication, Media, Arts and Design that will prepare you to take on the business aspects of the television and film production industry. Today's film and television producers need more than just good ideas and a crew to get their projects off the ground. They need people with the skills to handle the financing, management, legal, distribution and business affairs. That's where you'll come in.

The two-semester – Television and Film - Business graduate certificate program will emphasize the importance of an entrepreneurial spirit and a global outlook. You'll explore the industry's legal, financial and regulatory frameworks and develop skills necessary for producing in the current Canadian and international market. To round out your training, you'll complete a field placement that will allow you to gain experience in the industry prior to graduation.

This program is unique in Canada, and it will:

• Combine knowledge of the film and television industry with the principles and practices of accounting and business;
• Focus on developing strategies and plans for various business aspects of the film and television industry (e.g., project financing, program sales and marketing plans, and business plans for launching and operating an independent production company);
• Integrate knowledge of the global marketplace, distribution models and additional revenue sources;
• Provide opportunities to learn production techniques — in both crew and leadership positions — through the various stages of pre-production, production and post-production.

The Advertising - Creative and Digital Strategy program addresses the high demand for creators in the digital field of advertising and marketing, which is growing faster than all other areas in the advertising industry.

This Advertising Graduate Certificate program takes place at the Story Arts Centre in Toronto and blends Centennial College's experience in digital media with our strengths in business and marketing. The program focuses on helping you create engaging digital experiences built on solid creative strategy. You become immersed in the digital field and learn how to develop breakthrough creative advertising campaigns.

Through your courses, you acquire the necessary skills in creative strategy, writing, developing creative concepts, art direction, collaboration, presentation and entrepreneurialism. During a field placement, which is part of the second semester, Creative and Digital Strategy students take part in team assignments, working in a collaborative environment in the real world.

You’ll also learn new technologies and platforms that keep you informed about recent innovations in the digital creative field.

The program focuses on five key areas:

• Creative strategy, to ensure advertising meets clients' business objectives.
• Digital storytelling, to build on the power of storytelling in developing impactful creative advertising.
• Brand engagement, to create strong connections with consumers.
• Entrepreneurship, to foster key business skills that encourage innovation and risk-taking.
• Emerging platforms, to ensure you are up-to-date on the latest in digital technology impacting the advertising industry.

In this program, you:

• Gain an understanding of the digital creation process from a creative director's point of view.
• Learn how to craft a creative digital strategy that delivers results.
• Develop a strong portfolio and case studies for prospective employers.
• Enhance presentation skills to help sell ideas.
• Understand the impact of technology on creative development.
• Foster digital storytelling skills to bring brands to life online.
• Analyze and solve business and marketing challenges for clients by applying innovative creative and digital techniques.
• Complement in-class education with a field placement that will provide the opportunity to work in the industry and hone your skills.

Please note:- This program requires you to have and use a mobile computing device (i.e. laptop, tablet) that meets or exceeds the recommended hardware requirements. 

Program Highlights

• This Creative and Digital Strategy program gives you the opportunity to turn a degree or diploma into an exciting career in a growing field in the advertising industry.
• You learn how to create digitally-centric creative portfolio pieces using current industry design and writing standards.
• Faculty members have extensive industry experience and can help you connect to the industry by tapping into their personal networks.
• The program is offered at the Story Arts Centre, which is about 15 minutes from most advertising and digital marketing agencies in Toronto.
• At the Story Arts Centre, there are numerous opportunities to collaborate with students in a range of other marketing and communications-focused programs to enhance the learning experience.

Centennial College's Game – Art ?program will allow you to gain the skills to launch a career in the dynamic, ever-expanding and intensely creative interactive game industry. In just 16 consecutive months, the offering will prepare you for a career of imagination, innovative design and storytelling. 

You'll receive intensive hands-on training in Game – Art? and learn to build traditional 3D art assets for games, develop game environments and characters, and express your one-of-a-kind creativity. Developed by industry professionals and School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design instructors with a forward-thinking approach towards the next wave of interactive games, this games diploma program is well-respected in the industry.