Companies compete for digital media students

Hyper Island has 12 employees and is currently running three long-term programmes: Digital Media, Interactive Art Direction and Motion Graphics Design. The courses are based on three main principles:

1. Learning through activities/experience – Hyper Island's lecturers are also leading entrepreneurs, who come to the institute from all over the world. Students work with real clients to meet their specific needs, in order to acquire precisely the experience that future employers expect of them;
2. Learning from mistakes – all experience is valuable if it leads to better results in the future. This also includes failure. Students at Hyper Island don't take the easy route. Learning technical skills is not the immediate priority – at first it is more important to establish a strong foundation for creative thinking, problem solving and process management.
3. Managing work independently – students are responsible for their own learning.

In addition to its education offer, Hyper Island also organises training courses in management, teamwork and personal development.

However, the education provided at Hyper Island does not come cheap. The institution might charge as much as 34,000 Swedish krona for a single five-day intensive course. Last year, a two-year programme cost 200,000 Swedish krona. This is not a problem for Swedish students, as their studies are funded by the state, but it could become an obstacle for foreign students who make up approximately half the student population. In future, Hyper Island plans to start offering free-of-charge courses as well.

Hyper Island is currently on a recruitment drive in Europe and America. Go and experience it for yourself!

This news was published in the January 2010 Creative Estonia newsletter.