School and Education

The Knight Digital Media Center has spots for 20 working print journalists to learn the basics of multimedia journalism.

The weeklong intensive course covers: audio/video recording and editing, Flash graphics, digital cameras, Photoshop and web design concepts.

The deadline to apply is Monday, November 30, but if you miss that one, there's another program in May, and between those two, a February session on Web 2.0 journalism and social media.

The application process is intense, we hear, so if you're interested, get started now.

And we wouldn't be a mediabistro blog if we didn't promo our own courses, but simple math dictates that not everybody reading this is going to get into the Knight program (twenty slots! Yikes!). If you're interested in a less-competitive digital edge, try one of these courses on:

Flash for Journalists (New York, NY)

Develop Your Own Online Media Platform (Chicago, IL)

Writing and Editing for the Web Essentials(Boston, MA)

Writing and Editing for the Web Essentials(New York, NY)

Transition from Print to Online Magazine Writing (Los Angeles, CA)

Social Networking for Media Professionals (New York, NY)

Companies have slashed their training budgets for the second straight year by about 11 percent, according to a soon-to-be-released study by Bersin & Associates. Course libraries and open enrollment in training is disappearing in favor of targeted training (and this may be one reason for this decision). Employees are getting about 13 hours of formal training a year, down from the 25 averaged two years ago.

We've blogged about on-the-job training before; it's something that companies really need to invest in because you can't expect someone to pick up everything about your complicated work environment without getting some help (this may be why some companies are finding it tough to get the talent they need).

Anyway. There's only so much you can do on your own, for free. When employers cut training budgets and hours, it's bad news for everybody.

It's just a good day for education-related news, apparently, because a bunch of information about classes for media folk starting up this fall just landed in our lap.

If you're interested in any self-improvement/skills-building, check out these highlights:

• The Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business Journalism is offering free workshops in select cities as well as online training.
  • In Dallas: Finding Fresh Angles on the Economy in Your Own Backyard, Sept, 21 2009. (The same program will run in New Orleans on Nov. 9.)

  • In New York City: Covering the 2009 Reregulation of America, Oct 5, 2009. Learn what new regulations might be coming and what local stories you should be covering both now and when the new rules hit. (A similar program will run in Chicago Oct. 16.)

  • In Los Angeles: Investigative Business Journalism Workshop.Detect red flags in financial documents. Oct 21, 2009

  • For anyone, anywhere: The Reynolds center reprises Understanding Financial Statements, a week-long, one-hour-per-day webinar that teaches the basics of reading an income statement.
• The EFA has just released its fall catalog. You don't need to be a member to take a class. Highlights include starting as a freelancer, dealing with nightmare clients, working as a freelance publicist, and essay writing.
• Obviously, we have some cool stuff coming up. Our popular Flash For Journalists is this weekend, and starting this Monday, you can learn (online!) how to write a killer nonfiction book proposal.

So go forth and learn!

Students seeking loans for college are going to find it tougher than ever this year, MainStreet.com reports. Lenders are looking for ever-higher FICO scores—which students, most of whom haven't built up years of credit history—don't really have.

To get around that, one company is launching an online calculator which gets what they're calling your Human Capital Score. Based on your SAT score, your high school GPA, your planned major in college and a few other factors, the company will calculate how much of a risk you are and how much money you'll probably make after graduation. Lenders could use this, Mainstreet says, to decide whether to loan you money.

We tried it, putting in real info for our SAT scores and high school GPA, but saying we planned to enter college this fall and major in journalism. Our score: 3 minus, or "Weak."

Dang it.

On the bright side, we'll supposedly be making $80k yearly by the time we're 32.

"