Graduate Certificate - Public Relations (Corporate Communications)

at Centennial College - Story Arts Centre Campus Canada

The Bachelor of Public Relations Management, Honours program at Centennial College's Story Arts Centre is a unique, first-of-its-kind offering in Canada that combines public relations and business studies. In four years, this program will prepare you for an exciting career in public relations (PR), social media and corporate communications.

The Bachelor of Public Relations Management, Honours program, offered by the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design in collaboration with the School of Business, will balance the theory, principles and application of PR with a solid foundation in business principles through ten core business courses.

During your time in the program, you'll complete real-world projects that will allow you to apply your newly-acquired knowledge. From writing media releases to planning events, you'll engage in practical scenarios that will ground the core classroom concepts of this four-year degree.

To prepare you for a variety of careers, the Bachelor of Public Relations Management courses will include a strong focus on:

• Writing
• Social and digital media
• Research and communications planning
• Strategic communications
• Corporate communications

Whether your dream is to capture that definitive portrait, have your photos grace the pages of a leading fashion magazine or take photos for the world’s leading brands, our two-year Photography program will help you achieve your goals. 

In this hands-on photography diploma program, you will be capturing images from day one and learning the technology, techniques and business theory you need for a lasting career as a professional photographer. 

This photography program prepares you for the aesthetic and technical demands that come with working in studio or on location to produce captivating images that tell a story. Over two years, you will progressively build the skills needed to compete in the commercial photography industry and learn what it takes to grow your brand and create stunning images for a variety of clients. Upon completion of the Photography program, students will have the skills to operate their own photography business or find employment in related occupations such as fine art printing, advertising, publishing, graphic design and gallery and studio management.

Additionally, through your participation in the Story Arts Image Xchange, a real-world stock agency and incubator for emerging photographers and creative content creators, and the many scenarios where you can collaborate with students and faculty in our other programs, you will have had many opportunities to get your work published. You will also have the opportunity to put your skills to work in a professional setting during a seven-week field placement.

Program Highlights:-

• Attend classes at the Story Arts Centre, Centennial’s School of Communications Media, Arts and Design located close to downtown Toronto, which provides unlimited photographic opportunities.
• Opportunities to showcase your work in our Corridor Gallery and other galleries around the city.
• As School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design student, you will have many opportunities to collaborate with students in other programs .
• Participate in STORYWORKS, a unique and valuable course where you will work for real clients during your studies.

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.

Game Development & Design is a three-year advanced diploma program that aims to develop expert game designers who are able to create and develop their own titles. The program prepares students to become both technically literate and able to advance the conceptual and cultural potential of games.

The program concentrates on the practical applications of the game production process from the artistic, managerial, and technical sides. Students will be introduced to 2D and 3D design processes, foundations of computer programming, as well as how to communicate effectively with teams of artists and programmers to design, prototype and iterate their own fully playable 2D and 3D games. Students will also learn the professional and personal skills needed for success in the industry.

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. 

Centennial College's Advertising Media Management program will prepare you for a career in media planning and buying within the advertising and communications industry. 

Intensive, hands-on, industry-approved advertising media management courses will provide you with the fundamentals of media management. At the same time, they'll highlight consumer-driven communication channel choices (such as mobile platforms) for advertising messages.

In this graduate certificate program, you'll:

• Develop expertise in reaching target audiences with creative messages;
• Build your business and negotiation skills on behalf of advertising clients to achieve strategic results;
• Expand your knowledge of emerging media;
• Master industry-specific syndicated research databases and software;
• Complement your in-class education with a 14-week industry field placement.

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.

Arts Education and Community Engagement is a two-semester Graduate Certificate program designed to ladder students into careers in arts education and community arts.

Students will learn how to design arts educational programming that is pedagogically sound and that meets the needs of diverse communities.  Students will apply best practices of community arts work and will be trained to facilitate arts-based social justice initiatives. Students will also learn about a variety of careers in arts education and community development through research, mentorship, and field placements.  Graduates of this program will be equipped to manage a professional career in arts and learning, and to incorporate community-engaged arts work into their existing creative practice. 

By modelling innovative pedagogy, this program teaches students to innovate for themselves. By partnering with leading arts organizations, this program facilitates connections and opportunities within the sector. By emphasizing global citizenship, social justice, and cultural competency, this program helps students locate these concerns at the heart of their creative and educational practice.

Program Highlights:-

• Learn to plan and implement arts education and community programming that responds to the needs of a group of learners, in multiple settings, and in collaboration with other artists or organizations.
• Participate in a seven-week field placement where you will directly support the programming of a partnering organization or artist in a supervised community environment.
• Attend classes close to downtown near the creative, cultural heart of Toronto at our Story Arts Centre campus and in the Performing Arts Commons at Daniels Spectrum.
• Opportunities to collaborate with the other students in photography, film and television, music, art, theatre and dance programs at the Story Arts Centre
• Unique opportunity to network, learn and work with industry professionals

The Digital Visual Effects program is the only two-year college diploma offering of its kind in Ontario. Facilitated at Centennial College's Story Arts Centre, it provides you with the opportunity to learn the industry-standard techniques required to produce the photo-realistic visual effects seen in films that would be impossible to capture with a live-action camera.

In this diploma program's courses, you learn to work with the various aspects of the film-making process and bring them together into a seamless final product, while also developing your skills in industry-standard software. The Digital Visual Effects program focuses on the core skills needed to make you employable in the VFX industry and gives you the ability to explain how visual effects contribute to the entire process of storytelling in motion pictures.

You channel your efforts into demonstrating these concepts and core skills through a unique final project, for which you produce a demo reel suitable for job application in the visual effects field.

Program Highlights

• You learn industry-standard techniques in image processing, editing, lighting, rendering, matte painting, set extension, compositing and post VFX that employers are looking for.
• During the program, you produce a marketable demo and self-promotional package suitable for the VFX industry.
• A field placement in the final semester provides a valuable opportunity to work in the visual effects industry.
• You attend Digital Visual Effects courses at Centennial College's Story Arts Centre, located close to Toronto's downtown core and the major VFX studios.
• During your time in the program, you study and work in labs that are equipped with the latest tools and industry-standard software.
• The program provides a practical, hands-on and entrepreneurial approach that prepares you for sustainable VFX-related careers.
• Opportunities exist to collaborate with students in the digital animation, game design, photography, broadcasting, music, art and theatre programs at the Story Arts Centre. This is a unique opportunity to network, learn and work with industry professionals.

The Communications and Media Fundamentals program at Centennial College is an intensive one-year preparation undertaking. If you're looking for a pathway to pursue further post-secondary education, consider this certificate program, which will help you to develop communication skills while offering an introduction to the communications and media industries.

With guidance from experienced Communications and Media Fundamentals faculty members and practical application of theory, you'll obtain competencies for short- and long-term success.

In this media program's courses, you'll:

• Partake in creative exploration and experimentation with contemporary digital and social media production tools;
• Create and maintain forums on social media networks using rich media applications;
• Apply theoretical principles to produce practical and focused written communications and media solutions;
• Research and describe media forms, audiences, platforms, and "traditional" and "non-traditional" communication methods;
• Use appropriate vocabulary, terminology, basic numeracy and communicative strategies necessary for the communications and media environment;
• Apply developed English language skills to a presentation portfolio;
• Write and present in basic narrative formats for a variety of media platforms;
• Examine roles and responsibilities of global citizenship in personal and professional contexts;
• Examine beliefs, values and behaviours that form individual and community identities and the basis for respectful relationships;
• Apply knowledge of communications and media workplaces, environments, and practices to develop job search strategies and early career success strategies.

Program Highlights
When you successfully complete Communications and Media Fundamentals, you'll receive an offer to these College's School of Communication, Media, Arts and Design three-year advanced diploma programs:

• Advertising and Marketing Communications Management
• Journalism
• Broadcasting and Film