Scottsdale Community College to offer production assistant certification program

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - Scottsdale Community College announced it will be offering a Production Assistant Certification program in October.

The Scottsdale School of Film+Theatre at Scottsdale Community College says the program will train students to be film production assistants. The program will run from Oct. 3-7, 2022, and will return for the next 4 years to come. This year’s cohort will have 40 trainees working with a veteran Hollywood line producer and faculty from SCC. The five-day intensive program will teach students the skills and awareness they need to be stellar production assistants on a film set. The program was created by the Arizona Commerce Authority and the Arizona Production Association.

Matthew Earl Jones, director of Arizona Film and Digital Media, said, “We’re excited that SCC, which is home to one of the leading film schools in the state, has not only agreed to participate in our consortium of five community colleges across Arizona, but that they’ve taken a leading partnership role in developing and sponsoring the initiative, and supporting other colleges as they collaborate to develop this new workforce.”

Arizona’s film industry has seen a recent rise in large-scale film productions in the state. The SCC production assistant program will train more than 2,000 production assistants over the next 5 years. In 2021, the Navajo Nation signed an MOU with the ACA in order to permit filming on location within the Navajo Nation, opening even more doors for interested students.

“To take our industry to the next level, we need to demonstrate that we not only offer high-capability studios and technical infrastructure, but also a robust, qualified production assistant workforce that is ready to hit the ground running,” says Scottsdale School of Film+Theatre Department chair Bill True.

Other community colleges will also participate in the certification opportunity such as Glendale Community College, Coconino Community College, Yavapai College, and Pima Community College. For more information on the Production Assistant Certification program, click here.

Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.