Prof. Chinedum Adiele, Head of Television Department of the Academy, Living Television Film Academy, in Aba
Film Academy graduates will boost Nigeria’s economy in job creation – Prof. Adiele
[From BONIFACE OKORO, Umuahia]
Management of the Living Television Film Academy, in Aba, has projected that the institution would create a huge impact on Nigeria’s economy as its students would be self-reliant and employers of labour upon graduation.
Head of Television Department of the Academy, Professor Chinedum Adiele, made the prediction during an interview with The Oracle Today in Aba, adding that this would come about because the school places greater emphasis on practical training of its students than theories, with a view to producing well rounded and grounded full-fledge professionals.
“This school is going to be a wonderful enhancement to the Nigerian economy and even the state,” enthused Prof Adiele who was the pioneer Chairman of Actors Guild of Nigeria, Abia State chapter.
The trained journalist and Mass Communication teacher, who was also a former Deputy Rector of College of Science and Professional Studies, Aba, said the Academy was well equipped to realize its goal of producing professionals who would create job openings for the teeming Nigerian youths.
He maintained that graduates of Mass Communication should be job creators, not job seekers.
“You discover in our Nigerian universities, after four years of education, you will be carrying files, moving about. It is not supposed to be so in Mass Communication. Every Mass Communicator who understands what he went to school for can never be looking for white collar job here and there. If there is nothing you can do, you can write books, you can be a freelance journalist, you can write stories, you can interpret scripts and so on,” he said.
“I think in Abia State and Nigeria, our academy would turn out graduates that who will be the greatest employers of labour. This is one of the greatest things this school is going to achieve because we have already started seeing them. Some of our ladies can write stories on their own within just this one year because we are not talking about theory here, it is practical, while we theorize, we also practice,” he said.
According to him, the state Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, may have reckoned with potentials of the school which spurred him to award scholarships to 340 Abia youths to be trained in the school.
“I think that is one of the things the Governor saw and decided to give scholarship to about 20 persons per local government out of the 17 local government areas of the state, that is about 340. You can imagine by the time 340 students who will be independent are out of this place, you know what that means,” he said.
“We offer courses in the four major areas of Mass Communication and Film Making and it had to work out this way since the National Universities Commission unbundled Mass Communication. Most of our students, just within this one year, can handle cameras, some of them can now interpret what the script is all about.
He said the academy was establishing a film village for practical training students who would be future Movie Directors, Script Writers and Actors, among others; and commended the Chief Executive Officer of the academy, St. Moses Ogbonna, for his courage in investing in training students in Mass Communication.
