I made a poor start with the head of Media Studies at my local school. The school had only just achieved Technology and Media Arts Special status and the A level media studies course had not been running for long.

It was my first meeting with him and he obviously wanted to impress a Governor. I can’t remember the exact figures he gave me, but some of his very first words to me were his proud boast that last year they’d achieved an average exam score in the high 90’s percentage wise. He was a little taken aback by my instant lack of response and seeming lack of enthusiasm – he didn’t know quite how to take it, I think expecting me to break into a big smile and say ‘Fantastic’ or something.

With this years A level results just in, and another record of ‘A’s and ‘A*’s, how much worth does an exam result have when so many other students (degree or A level), who have seemingly impressive results? What makes your students stand apart from the rest in the race to be employed somewhere and expound their art?

My son is off to University next month and earlier this year we had an interesting conversation with the ‘Product design’ head of department. He said to us he actually doesn’t like taking in straight ‘A’ students as they don’t tend to complete the course and aren’t usually practical enough to make it either on the course or in the jobs they eventually get – which obviously reflects on the university.

The education system is very academically orientated - there’s a whole other debate as to whether media studies is a academic or vocational subject. But, there is so much weight given to the quality of exam results and statistic tables (academic achievement), that a lot of schools have lost sight of their primary aim, that is to help the student achieve their best potential, not simply the best exam results. Exam results can be achieved by just teaching how to best past exams – I’ve heard students quite often complaining that there were parts of the exam they’d just sat where they actually hadn’t been taught that particular part of the subject – teachers concentrating on certain core parts of the subject so they get good marks, but missing out whole sections of the subject.

So what is the important part in a media studies course?  In my option, not the ’studies’ part and not if the academic aim is just good exam results! The answer has to be the ‘media’ bit – the students project work is the thing that will not only show their future talent, but also separate them from the myriad of others with the exam same grades, especially when it comes to the real world job interview. The main criteria any employer will give you regarding a new employee is the need for talent. We’ve all heard stories of people who’ve made it the real world who we’re written off at school – usually because they didn’t do very well at exams! We need to give the students the opportunities to express their talents to the full - with our guidance help develop those talents and help build a strength of character that will help them through life, not just an exam.

Within Media Studies we need to have the facilities and expertise to allow the students to create project work of a standard that will allow this to become the start of their future career portfolio.  Some years ago the statistics were that the Universities produced over 4,000 media studies graduates a year, just 120 found jobs in the Media Industry.   With even more students at University today and less jobs around I hate to think what the numbers are now.  IF your students are going anywhere in the media, they have to have that supporting project work, exam results are not enough!