Diploma in Visual and Digital Arts

at Humber College - Lakeshore Campus Canada

Humber’s International Development graduate certificate program is designed for individuals who want to see the world and make a difference within it. This program provides graduates with the skills and knowledge required to manage, develop and grow international development and disaster relief projects anywhere in the world. Graduates may find themselves in some of the most difficult environments in the world, or they may work in developed countries changing policies to make a difference in the Global South. Faculty are chosen for their field expertise and experience in international development – most continue to work with numerous international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or United Nations agencies while teaching at Humber part time.

Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the program, a graduate will:

• Contribute directly to project planning and the articulation of project goals having national or regional objectives, including the preparation or modification of proposals and bids, and the negotiation of program/project elements and budgets.
• Implement strategies to secure project funding.
• Establish administrative systems and procedures relating to program approval processes, reporting systems, technical assistance requirements, procurement, international travel and project termination/evacuation.
• Assist in the co-operative management with partners of specific program and project elements, including the development of implementation plans and strategies, in-course project monitoring and evaluation, and project modification as required.
• Assume responsibility for the management of key financial and physical resources associated with projects, including planning, procurement, monitoring and reporting on progress, reviewing and revising initial plans based on in-project performance, and preparing reports for further analysis and review.
• Demonstrate effective human resource management and labour relations skills relating to projects, including the recruitment and supervision of project personnel and effective interaction with external specialists or consultants acting under contract.
• Perform statistical analysis in a business environment.
• Interpret and apply national and international regulations.
• Demonstrate an understanding of individual and corporate ethics in a business environment, and the importance of effective leadership and team-building in joint ventures based on international co-operation.
• Communicate and work effectively in cross-cultural environments.
• Use industry specific language to describe challenges, solutions and opportunities across the ID arena.

Work Placement

• You will gain industry experience and build your international development network with an eight-week (minimum) work placement within the development/humanitarian sectors. Many students choose to do this placement overseas but it can also be done here in Canada.
• With the program co-ordinator’s support, placements are found through a combination of your interests and contacts with graduates and industry partners. The educational foundation for the work placement includes learning how to optimize resumés, LinkedIn profiles and cover letters, as well as covering the broad set of skills needed to be comfortable and safe working outside of Canada.

Humber’s Arts Administration and Cultural Management graduate certificate program is for those who wish to combine their passion for arts, culture and heritage with business acumen and management skills. This distinctive program promotes diverse, multidisciplinary performing and visual artistic expressions supported by organizational competence in revenue development (earned and contributed), management of human resources (artists, volunteers, companies), planning (financial, strategic, special events, career), and communications (multiplatform, digital, marketing).

The program is situated within the creative milieu of Humber’s renowned programs in theatre, writing, visual and digital arts, music, photography, animation, television, and film. Real-world experience is gained through varied field placements in commercial, government and not-for-profit arts and culture organizations, and collaborative capstone projects which demonstrate to employers the breadth of graduates’ abilities.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the program, a graduate will:

• Articulate the value of the arts through applied research into national and international arts, culture and heritage policies, current and historical.
• Plan, implement and manage revenue development activities to secure resources from charitable foundations, corporations, government and non-government sources, and donors, through special events, and via online platforms.
• Demonstrate understanding of the negotiation and administration of arts contracts and applicable human resources legislation, regulations and practices, including the recruitment and effective management of volunteers and boards of directors.
• Design and implement effective marketing, promotion, public relations, education and engagement strategies.
• Demonstrate, individually and in groups, a range of administrative skills pertaining to organizational structure, internal and external relations, facility management, and financial management.
• Demonstrate numeracy and planning skills related to fiscal management and control. 
• Communicate effectively in both written and spoken business communications.
• Demonstrate familiarity with computer applications used in arts, culture and heritage operations, including constituent relationship management, book-keeping, graphic design, spreadsheets, project management, and website creation and maintenance.
• Incorporate concepts of equity, pluralism, diversity and access into all facets of arts management practice.

Work Placement
Two field placements offer students relevant experience and the development of mentoring relationships. Students have participated in placements with more than 100 regional, national and international arts and culture organizations including The National Ballet of Canada; The Royal Conservatory of Music; The Stratford Festival; the Hockey Hall of Fame; The Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts; and numerous galleries, theatres, concert halls, museums and festivals. Students are responsible, with assistance, for arranging their own field placement locations and terms, and for the completion of the required 420 hours.

Humber’s Public Relations graduate certificate program is recognized by industry as one of Canada’s leading training grounds for public relations professionals. This intensive program is focused on preparing you to launch your degree and getting you ready for your first day of your work placement. You will learn how to plan, develop and execute effective public relations strategies. You will build critical skills in event planning, public speaking and presentation.

Experienced professors will help you develop writing skills, public relations strategies, research and planning abilities, and a high degree of social and traditional media literacy. Practical public relations courses in PR theory, marketing communications, public affairs, media relations, corporate social responsibility, sustainability and change management will provide you with a valuable and useful introduction to the field. Your teamwork, collaborative, and leadership skills will be honed through group assignments.

Work Placement
Many students choose our program because of our outstanding work placement program. After successfully completing two academic semesters, students will complete a mandatory work placement. This experience will allow you to gain valuable job skills and industry knowledge while building your network. Historically, students find work placements in PR agencies, corporations, entertainment organizations, and not-for-profits including arts organizations, hospitals, associations and government. While many placements are located within the GTA, students may also find placements outside the city, province or country.

Humber’s Bachelor of Digital Communications degree program explores the dynamic media environment and the cultural, social, economic and political implications of digital innovation. Communications studies are becoming recognized as one of the most significant social sciences in the 21st century. Increasingly, worldviews are shaped through messages received from television, film, the internet, social media and a host of media arts, with profound impacts on how the world and the self are viewed. The construction of everyday lives and identities are negotiated through digital media and social networks which influence how we live, the products we produce and consume, and how we connect.

This program is rigorous and innovative, developing digital storytellers who are skilled in writing, visual communication, web applications and social media. You will build significant business acumen while working in an environment where creative ideas and methods cross-pollinate. As you gain technical competency, you will collaborate and innovate with peers, faculty and visitors, building personal communication and networking skills. Intensive lectures and labs provide direction and practical experience, sharpening technical skills and stimulating critical discourse, using student work as a starting point. Access to studios and computing spaces enables reflective and collaborative project work. Historical, legal, ethical and theoretical considerations are built into the creative process.

As part of the program, you will engage with an array of courses designed to deepen your awareness of your roles as a citizen conscious of the social, political, environmental and cultural contexts of their work. Senior students in this program specialize in advanced communication theory and techniques. A culminating capstone project showcases their abilities and learning, and serves as a platform for launching a career in digital and social media co-ordination, media relations, and many other mass communications fields. Graduates may also choose to further their studies at the master’s level.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the program, a graduate will:

• Employ distinctive communication styles grounded in a thorough understanding of communication theories, and historical and contemporary trends in visual design and media technologies.
• Create effective media strategies based on insightful audience analysis, principles of branding and marketing and revenue generation and media law and ethics.
• Critically analyze and interpret media messages, comprehending the historical, social, commercial and cultural impact of representational, explanatory, abstract and symbolic images.
• Gather, review, evaluate, interpret and express information using a range of well-developed analytic and creative methodologies.
• Operate as informed producers and consumers of media communications recognizing the aims of commercial business, nonprofits, government, and community enterprise.
• Apply innovative media strategies to effectively analyze and express themes and issues from a range of contexts and perspectives.
• Interpret and apply theoretical and ethical frameworks to identify and solve communication problems in a variety of contexts.
• Present ideas and information accurately and creatively using written, oral, audio-visual and web-based formats.
• Reflect on communication strategies and practices from a range of perspectives and willingly adapt, revise, edit, and develop improvements.
• Manage communication projects effectively, employing a professional attitude towards responsibility, initiative, collaboration, adaptability, accountability and ethical use of resources.
• Integrate leadership and influence skills with accountability in media content creation.
• Direct own continuous learning, pursuing opportunities for constant renewal of skills and knowledge.

Work Placement
Students will participate in one mandatory work placement in the summer between Semester 6 and 7. The placement provides students with an opportunity to gain experience and meet professionals in the digital communications sector. Many of the placements are offered in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), a hub for the communications industry in Canada and home to numerous media, non-profit, marketing, public relations and other private sector companies.

Humber’s Child and Youth Care advanced diploma program prepares you to promote the optimal development of children, youth and their families. Students are required to develop skills in assessing needs, designing and implementing programs and planned environments, and using daily life events to support and facilitate positive change. The program provides foundational knowledge in infant, child and adolescent development; child and youth care relational practice principles; psychology of the family; evidence-based or evidence-informed intervention strategies; group dynamics; and therapeutic activities.

You will learn that an essential component of professional practice is self-awareness, with many courses emphasizing self-reflection and the classroom being a professional practice environment. Your high energy level and emotional maturity will help you meet the demands of working with children and youth with complex needs.

Our program is delivered by award-winning faculty, renowned in their field, with current, relevant experience and advanced degrees. A key feature of the program is its therapeutic play lab fostering experiential learning.
Work Placement
Field placements with established partnerships are a critical component of this program. There is an exciting variety of innovative and traditional field placements available in and around the Greater Toronto Area. Field placements can also be arranged in your own community and are unpaid.

For the first field placement, opportunities are often school-based and occur two days a week for fourteen weeks. For the final two placements, you will be able to submit four to six placement choices with the school making the final decision. These field placements run four days per week.

Humber’s Bachelor of Commerce – Marketing degree program gives you a comprehensive grounding in both general business knowledge and specialized marketing skills.  Our program starts with a foundation of business studies in areas such as organizational behaviour, law, economics, finance and accounting, marketing, and operations management. Specialization courses that focus on marketing strategies will give you the skills, knowledge and experience needed to stand out from the crowd. You’ll learn from professors recognized for their expertise and extensive industry contacts. The program curriculum, based on current trends, technologies and methodologies, brings real world challenges into the classroom. By graduation, you’ll have developed a wide range of marketable skills, including:

• Creating a strategic marketing plan
• Conducting a product analysis
• Using social media and advertising for product promotion
• Using databases to create consumer relationships

Humber’s project-based curriculum means you will take projects from idea to execution while working in a real-world, team-based environment.
The program requires that you complete 14 weeks/420 hours of paid work in the summer between your sixth and seventh semesters. This gives you the hands-on, real-world experience that employers value. Your work placement will give you the opportunity to explore the field you’d like to work in when you graduate. We will work with employers and our industry partners to help you identify opportunities to pursue.
Canada’s service sector is poised for strong growth. The field of marketing in particular is predicted to grow exponentially – which means that companies are looking for top talent to help them achieve success. Our program will prepare you to pursue a career as a marketing analyst or a product, sales, marketing or communications manager in a wide range of sectors including consumer goods, electronics, entertainment, fashion, leisure and tourism, manufacturing, music, retail, and sports. You’ll learn how to market yourself and get your career underway in advertising firms, retail chains, wholesalers and consumer product companies. The hands-on experience you’ll gain during your studies means you will be able to add value quickly to a wide range of workplaces.

Humber’s Bachelor of Commerce - Human Resources Management degree program focuses on applied professional human resources (HR) practices and solutions. Our program starts with a foundation of business studies in areas such as organizational behaviour, law, economics, finance and accounting, marketing, and operations management. Specialization courses will focus on HR, giving you practical skills through applied projects such as developing plans and strategies to address key issues in recruitment and selection, compensation, policy, and training and development. You will have the opportunity to develop processes from the idea stage through to execution, and you will learn from experienced professors and a network of industry professionals.

The program is closely connected to the HR industry. You will have the opportunity to meet with a panel of the program’s advisory committee members to discuss career opportunities and to attend workshops and events on human resources-related topics.

Work Placement
The program requires that you complete 14 weeks/420 hours of paid work in the summer between your sixth and seventh semesters. This gives you the hands-on, real-world experience that employers value. Your placement will give you the opportunity to explore the field you’d like to work in when you graduate. We will work with employers and our industry partners to help you identify opportunities to pursue.

Humber’s Introduction to Commercial Jazz Music certificate is a performance-based program designed to help you assess and strengthen your skills. It solidifies your knowledge of the fundamentals of western music and develops your current performance skills through the jazz-specific areas of improvisation, repertoire development and small group ensemble performance. You will emerge from the program with a clearer understanding of the field and your own career potential within it, and as a stronger candidate for entry into postsecondary music degree and diploma programs. All courses have a particular focus on the commercial jazz field.

Learning Outcomes

• Upon successful completion of the program, a graduate will:
  • Recognize & identify common styles of music.
  • Describe the commercial/jazz field in terms of tradition, artists, & styles.
  • Explain the contribution of various artists to the development of particular styles & idioms.
  • Analyze the components & performance differences of recorded selections.
  • Play a repertoire of memorized materials that are considered standards in the commercial/jazz field & reflect the various styles inherent in this music.
  • Write diatonic melodies in various styles demonstrating knowledge of relevant harmonic & melodic concepts & structures of form.
  • Perform in an ensemble demonstrating basic ensemble skills such as intonation, tuning, time, feel, balance & dynamics.
  • Identify their own musical strengths & weaknesses in terms of a performance career in the commercial/jazz field.
  • Implement strategies & plans for on-going personal & professional growth & development.
  • Establish a practice of critical self-assessment & professional goal setting.

Humber’s Advertising Media Management graduate certificate program gives you the knowledge and skills to effectively research and analyze both the marketplace and a target audience, and subsequently develop the best and most creative media solutions that meet the client or the company’s advertising goals.

Throughout the program, you will learn how to translate marketing objectives into focused media campaigns, assess the strength and weaknesses of different media types, analyze media data, and determine how best to sell advertising time/space for both traditional (TV, radio, outdoor media, print) and emerging (all things digital) platforms.

Upon graduation, you will have learned how to speak knowledgeably and persuasively in a media environment, and how to negotiate as buyers and sellers of media time and space. Through the enhancement of your client and customer communications skills, you will gain the ability to focus on the needs of an organization, build lasting relationships across the industry and add tremendous value to the companies you work with.  Finally, you will build your technology skillset through the use of industry specific research databases and softwares throughout your studies.

With this comprehensive understanding of both the traditional and digital media landscape, you will hit the ground running in your new career at a boutique or world leading advertising agency or any number of small to large companies across the media management landscape. 

Work Placement
Gain hands-on industry experience with a 160-hour (minimum) work placement. Here you will have the opportunity to apply what you’ve learned in the classroom to a real-world business environment. With our support, you’ll find your placement at any number of local, national or international advertising/media-related companies or brands. Placements can be completed on a part-time basis throughout the academic year or full-time once your classes are complete. 

Humber’s Public Administration graduate certificate program is the first of its kind in Canada providing all of the knowledge, skills and experience graduates need to become successful public service employees. Designed and taught by public administration professionals, this program is your key to succeeding quickly in a public sector job. You will receive advanced training in communications, policy analysis, project management, information technology, public finance, governance, leadership and human resources management. Experienced faculty, most of whom currently work in the public sector, will guide you through the core of the curriculum, with guest speakers addressing specific topical issues. The practical, skills-based curriculum provides the foundation for long-term career success by exposing you to the primary activities of public administration and by providing networking opportunities with civil servants from across the sector.

Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the program, a graduate will:

• Describe the machinery of government in Canada, including the roles and responsibilities of executives, legislatures and the judiciary, as well as the relationships between all levels of government.
• Define ethics and values which are key to public administration and explain how they apply at all levels of public administration.
• Explore and compare public administration practices found in industrialized countries, especially member states of the European Union and the United States.
• Discuss current issues affecting Canadian public administration and examine how those issues are managed from a public management perspective.
• Discuss key elements of strategic planning processes and examine how these apply to public administration.
• Understand and relate to governments from two perspectives: as business entities with strategic plans, budgets, and core businesses; and as organizations composed of complex human behaviour.
• Explain key economic and finance concepts such as externalities, public and private goods, deficit financing, debt repayment, and fiscal federalism.
• Demonstrate how governments plan, manage and report on the collection and expenditure of public funds.
• Discuss information technology and software applications used in public administration as well as current information technology issues faced by public sector IT managers.
• Prepare and manage human resources in public administration, including the preparation of HR plans, recruitment and selection processes, supervisory skills, negotiating skills and conflict resolution skills.
• Describe the role that communications plays in the public sector and work with stakeholders and partners to meet the information needs of the public, the media, political staff and the bureaucracy.
• Examine how governments develop, implement and evaluate programs in general and learn how to use specific research and analysis tools to contribute to that process in particular.
• Identify the methodological and conceptual issues associated with evaluating and maintaining quality services in the public sector.
• Identify the skills and knowledge required by project managers and project management teams in the public sector.
• Understand and fulfill leadership responsibilities in the public sector by assessing individual leadership traits and behaviours and apply this understanding to the broader theories and concepts of leadership.
• Understand, contribute to, and manage partnerships in the public sector, broadly defined.

Work Placement

• You will gain on-the-job work experience with an eight-week (minimum) work placement within the public sector. With faculty support, you will find placements with an appropriate organization.