Schools of rock

Traditionally the focus on post-Leaving Cert education has centred on universities such as Trinity College, UCD and NUIG.
However, such institutions sometimes fail to meet the needs of students pursuing further education as a means to securing employment. Larger universities are impersonal by their nature and often cannot offer students the sort of attention needed to launch them into certain professions.
In such cases, the many vocational colleges around the country are better equipped to provide such detail, as well as a community-based atmosphere. Here, students are offered a considerable choice of highly-staffed, highly-trained, and highly-regarded post Leaving Certificate courses, aimed at giving them the necessary practical skills in the areas of print journalism, accountancy, radio, film and the ever expanding Irish music industry.
While the university courses in these areas often become bogged down in theory-based learning, students can gain a much more useful understanding of such professions away from the major education establishments.
In looking for a post-Leaving Cert course, perhaps the best place to start is the home page of the City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee (CDVEC). There are 21 colleges in and around the capital under the CDVEC banner. The range of courses they offer is mesmerising, and it’s no wonder that CDVEC courses have grown in popularity in recent years. Where there is a job, there is a CDVEC course. Subjects students can study include art and design, animation, business studies, computing, outdoor sports, accountancy, nursing and even rock ‘n roll.
“The range of courses available is a particular benefit but also the fact that they are at a college near you,” notes CDVEC Education Officer Evan Buckley. “We’re all over Dublin and that’s a big strength. You can get the course you want in an area which is convenient to you.”
There is also a community ethos to the colleges. “Students have a nice identity and feel part of the college," she says. “They are not places teeming with thousands of people. You won’t be just a faceless name, you’ll be well looked after.”
Across the board, CDVEC courses in the creative media, (such as film, journalism and music) see considerable competition for places.
“The media courses are very competitive to get into because employers regard them so highly,” says Buckley, “but also computer business courses have made a comeback in popularity as have the Outdoor Education courses in swimming and mountain climbing.”
The graduates produced by CDVEC courses are primarily geared to enter employment immediately, meaning that CDVEC qualifications are increasingly recognised by employers. Some graduates, though, take another path, and choose to continue their education. Often a qualification at a CDVEC college can be used as a stepping stone to a higher qualification.
Coláiste Dhuláigh in Finglas and Ballyfermot College of Further Education are two CDVEC colleges with prominent media courses. Both offer diploma courses in journalism, radio and film production. Coláiste Dhuláigh boasts successful Irish director Damien O’Donnell (Heartlands, Inside I’m Dancing, East Is East) as a past pupil and patron of their Higher National Diploma in Film Production. In Ballyfermot, former Buffy The Vampire Slayer script-writer Sarah Anne Murphy is a member of staff on the Higher National Diploma in Film Operations and Production.
“Students learn everything about making a film from the beginning right through to the marketing and distribution end,” she explains. “Obviously I deal with a particular stage but everything is covered and it’s quite comprehensive and fun, really.”
Like both Coláiste Dhuláigh and Ballyfermot, Griffith College Dublin offers courses in creative media along with a comprehensive range of courses in business studies, law, computing and design. Though traditionally renowned for its professional law school (it is the largest provider of professional legal training in the country), the college has noticed a considerable growth in the popularity of its media courses.
Highly regarded by past graduates and employers, the college's BA in journalism and media communications is a particularly attractive course for those interested in pursuing a career in television, radio, news, photography or print journalism.
It is one of only a number of colleges in the country to offer such a degree at undergraduate level.
“It’s a hands-on course with the majority of the emphasis on the practical nature of the profession," says deputy head of journalism, Robbie Smyth. “From the moment the students enter the course they are writing reports and features, and are getting into photography and radio. In the second and third years the emphasis would shift to develop more competencies in whatever field the student has most interest in, be it radio, print, television or photography.”
Along with individual projects and course-work the BA course at Griffith sees students getting a taste of what a working life in journalism entails, through producing their own newspaper, running a radio station and shooting TV shows. Such methods of learning have enabled many of the college’s students to develop impressive portfolios and make a name for themselves at student level. For the last five years running, students from the department have picked up awards at the prestigious Oxygen Student Media Awards.
Of course Griffith College receives considerable competition from other institutions, most notably the emerging Dun Laoghaire College of Further Education. DLCFE prides itself on its School Of Media Studies, which offers, amongst others, diploma courses in radio and print journalism, public relations, and sound engineering. “The media courses are the most popular we offer at the moment,” says Principal Michael Condron. “A lot of the students come to us on the recommendation of those who have graduated and are working in the industry. So along with the immediate post-Leaving Cert students we’d attract other students of all age groups who are perhaps looking to enter the profession.”
Like Griffith, the focus on the media courses at Dun Laoghaire remains on the practical aspects and students learn on industry standard computer programmes and digital equipment. As a result graduates are fully prepared for entering careers in sound engineering, radio and television. The availability of such equipment, along with fully fitted radio and television studios, means that course work often proves popular at DLCFE.
“There’s a lot of project work on the course which students enjoy and which we see as an excellent pattern to learn the disciplines of journalism or sound engineering,” says Condron.
“For example, last year the students on the Diploma in Sound Engineering put together a CD which they made, recorded, produced and marketed themselves. That album reached number 14 in the Irish charts so particular satisfaction can be derived from that achievement for those students. That particular course also covers event management, which is essentially business management for the music industry. So the CD project covered both the practicalities of sound engineering while also looking at the marketing of a product, and that’s how comprehensive the courses here are. All strands are covered.”
Like the student pursuing a course in the media, there remains a wealth of options available to those seeking to enter the world of sound engineering and music production. In particular there are three highly recommended sound engineering courses in the capital, at Dun Laoghaire, Pulse Recording College and The Sound Training Centre in Temple Bar.
At the Sound Training Centre students qualify to an internationally recognised standard. Both the diplomas in Music Technology and Sound Engineering are City and Guilds certified. Along with this, one of the centre’s major selling points is its location, Temple Bar Music Centre. Rehearsal rooms are also found within the building and, for the student at the Sound Training Centre, this means access to a client base.
“It’s compulsory for our students to work with bands, and to develop a client base while they are in the college,” notes college manager Les Stapleton. “So we do have a policy here where students must have a professional relationship with at least four clients throughout the academic year. The idea behind it is that, when they leave here at the end of their year, it’s not like they are starting out on the bottom rung of the ladder. They will begin their working life with a client base in place”
Along with preparing students for working life as an engineer, one of the focuses on the sound engineering course is on song development. While students gain a comprehensive overview of sound engineering practise, music production techniques and study acoustics and basic sound design, they also work on enhancing their own compositions.
“As opposed to some of the other courses we would put a huge emphasis on production, so we’re interested in people working with musicians but we’re also interested in people developing their own music projects and their own compositions,” says Stapleton. “Again that fills the student with the ability to add to the material he works on and sets them on the path to carving a career as a producer.”
Students also work on the Neve VR Legend recording console, perhaps the most advanced analogue recording console in the world. At the highest end of professional recording equipment, the Sound Training Centre is the only place in Ireland that offers students the opportunity to work on such a desk. The centre also boasts an impressive list of graduates, including Joe Chester, 2FM’s John Power, Stefano Sofia and producer-in-demand, Gareth Mannix.
A similarly impressive list of graduates stems from Pulse Recording College, which boasts Windmill Lane Studios as one of the notable examples of recording organisations who recruit directly from its courses. This has meant that graduates of the college have twiddled knobs for the likes of U2, REM, New Order and Bon Jovi, though this is not all that Pulse can boast. The college was the first in Ireland to be awarded the City and Guilds Parts 1, 2 and 3 certificates for Sound Engineering. It is also Ireland’s only Digidesign certified training location, meaning it has a Digidesign department that teaches Pro Tools from beginner to operator level. Offered as both a full-time or part-time course, this enables the Pulse graduate to go straight into a studio as a Pro Tools operator.
“People regard Pro Tools as the future of education in the audio industry. It is the equivalent of Microsoft in the office,” explains Pulse founder and studio manager Tony Perrey. “In today’s recording industry, you can’t walk into a studio without seeing Pro Tools.”
Outside of Dublin, Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa in Cork City is something of a hub for students looking to study music management and sound engineering. They offer a one year full time course that covers live performance, musicianship, recording and songwriting. Notably the course also covers areas such as marketing, contracts and public relations giving students an overall education in various aspects of the music industry. The course is being upgraded to a BETC higher national diploma, and will soon be a two-year course.
The programme is particularly attractive to the musician who wants to equip themselves with knowledge of the industry and recording while also improving their performance skills.
“The equipment at the college is of modern quality,” says course director Chris Ahern. “So we have separate booths in the studio for vocals, drums, etc. We also have the best of both worlds in that we can provide analogue and Pro Tools desks. Performance-wise we stage 10 live gigs every year at public venues such as Cyprus Avenue and these seem to get better every year in terms of public interest. Often, we could do another 10 nights, which is fantastic.”
With particular emphasis on improving their musicians’ live and technical abilities, it’s no surprise that the college includes such exemplary performer as Sinéad Lohan and Riverdances’s Niamh Ni Carra amongst its graduates.
Music performance also makes up one of the key components to the impressive courses offered at Dublin’s Kylemore College. Located in the Ballyfermot area, the college offers two post-Leaving Cert music courses. One is purely in music technology, while the other covers technology as well as performance. The first is aimed at those who wish to learn the proficiency to work in a studio, or indeed outside it as a sound technician or engineer. It is suited to those who see themselves working behind a mixing desk, while the music performance and technology course is focused almost entirely on the musician on the other side.
Like Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa, the emphasis is on improving live performance and a considerable amount of time is put into songwriting development. It makes for an extremely practical and hands-on course according to head of music, Gerard Flanagan.
“The tutors here at Kylemore are professional musicians themselves so a lot of guidance in terms of building a career in music is one of the major advantages that our teachers can pass on to students ,” he says. “Though we have lots of expertise in teaching, it’s what the musicians themselves come up with that makes the course successful or not. The focus here is on the students and what they can come with. We guide them, but they themselves bring their own style or direction.”
Obviously if one wishes to pursue a course aimed at improving music performance, or indeed in sound engineering or technology, it is of considerable advantage to be able to play a musical instrument. For the student who wants to begin from scratch, to the advanced player who wants to learn new styles, there is seldom anywhere better than the Brookfield School of Music. Here it is arguably the teachers who outstrip the graduates in terms of prestige. The course is run chiefly by celebrated guitarist Michael Brookfield who has worked with people as diverse as Enrique Iglasias, Sophie Ellis Bexter, Lionel Richie, Sinéad O’Connor and Rod Stewart. Regularly, the school also hosts a range of master classes bringing in people like jazz guitarist Hugh Buckley and singer/songwriter Juliet Turner to divulge their pearls of wisdom.
Running over two terms in the academic year, the school is primarily guitar-based. No corners are cut and though the classes are rigorous and intensive, they are also extremely rewarding. Most impressively, all students learn how to read sheet music as a requirement.
“Michael insists on it and it’s something which sets the school apart,” says Gráinne Brookfield who runs the school along with her husband. “Other places don’t encourage it, which is foolish. For example if, after taking the course here at Brookfield, a student decides to stop playing guitar and take up the piano as a beginner, then the transition for them is going to be so much easier because they already know how to read music.”
Along with students with no knowledge of music being able to write down their own compositions by the course's end, the fact that students return year after year to move up a level of playing obviously speaks volumes for the its teachers.
Grainn Brookfield says: “When the same faces return it’s fantastic and when new students come in on a recommendation then you know you’re doing something right.”