About the course

I am a second-year student studying Creative Media Technology at Leeds Beckett University. If you are a creative person and love working on computers with industry standard software, this course should suit you perfectly! Creative Media Technology is a 3-year degree with the opportunity to go on placement for a year after your second year and work in the creative industry.

The great thing about this course is that it covers a range of things, from graphic design, to web design, web development, 3D animation, video production and much more. This may seem like a lot, and you may be thinking ‘how you will learn all of this throughout the course?’ Well, the way in which each semester is structured allows enough time and focus to be spent learning the new skills, and you’ll be surprised how quickly you start picking it all up. Also, you don’t need any form of creative experience prior to starting the course – I didn’t have any!

First year

In the first year of the course, you will be learning the basics of the industry standard software packages such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign, as well as learning how to code simple websites from scratch. In addition to this, you will also learn the basics of 3D animation, video production and post-production editing. This is all really useful stuff to learn for ANY career nowadays, not just a digital career. Away from the computers, the course has great contacts with the professional industry and frequently hosts guest lectures throughout the first year from these industry experts. These are great opportunities to hear what people in the creative industry have to say, hear what advice they can give, and you can also start to build up connections with these potential future employers.

Second year

When entering the second year you should have a good understanding of the skills needed for the course, and you should be confident using some of the software packages. This year is about developing your skills further and finding an area that you are really interested in. The modules you cover in this year are similar to the ones in the first year, but taken up to a more advanced level. Some of the things covered in the second year are: designing a full promotional campaign for a new album release of your choice, creating a fully functional website for a real-life client, creating an educational science game for young children and designing a high-quality television/movie title sequence using Adobe After Effects.

In addition to completing these modules, this is the year you start focusing on applying for placements. Placements are optional but they are highly recommended. Having the chance to spend a year doing paid work at a real agency will enhance your skills, connections and experience immensely and allow you to come back to third year with some invaluable skills.  

Placement opportunitites

Recently, I have been searching for, and applying for, placements for when I finished my second year. I feel that spending a year out in industry will teach me so much and really help me in my third and final year when I come back to university. I have managed to secure a placement with a popular agency in the centre of Leeds where I will be spending time working in a number of teams, such as the design team, development team and marketing team. This will allow me to get a range of experience from industry professionals that I can bring back to university to help me with my final year. I can’t wait.

Ryan

Hi, I’m Ryan, and I’m from a small village in East Yorkshire. I’m currently in my 2nd year studying Creative Media Technology. When i'm not studying, I like to go to the university gym, play football and play the occasional game of squash.

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