On Dec. 6, 2006, Professor Dr. Rasha al-Sabah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education, performed the official inauguration ceremony of the SAE Institute Kuwait with a formal ribbon cutting ritual at the Institute in Shuwaikh.
After the opening speeches by Ant Bilsev, the school manager, and Abdul Mohsen al-Sarawi, the ceo of SAE Kuwait, Romy Hawatt, senior exec for strategic business development of SAE International, explained the strategic goals and aims of SAE, "SAE recognizes the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf in particular as on of the world's most important emerging markets in the areas of vocational and higher education. This opening here tonight evidences our clear objective to provide Kuwait with access to our vast technical education, experience, capacity and capabilities and we are here to support the Kuwaiti people with their projected growth and positive influence in the region as a quality educational hub."
In their speeches, both, Dr. Ralph King, ambassador of Australia, and Prof. Dr. Rasha al-Sabah said, that the SAE Institute "can serve to foster and strengthen" the existing relations between Kuwait and Australia.
Prof. Dr. Rasha al-Sabah explained that, "the Kuwaiti government has noticed, that there has been an agglomeration of University graduates with a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts Degree and excellent knowledge in their respective fields, but with no job at the end of the day. Therefore the government is more and more keen to go and train our youth in the technical skills and this is one fundamental reason, why an Institute such as SAE is so important in our country." She added, "the SAE diploma will be an automatic passport to the market and therefore to a job, whether in Kuwait or elsewhere."
SAE Institute, the worldwide educational center in the fields of film, animation and audio engineering, has enjoyed strategic growth in terms of student enrollments, this year.
The number of enrollments registered in 2006 are up 100% compared to last year's figures. October 2006 saw a great number of intakes in an array of SAE courses.
In regards to Diploma courses, three streams of one-year, full-time programs have commenced in October 2006. These are Audio Engineering, Film Making and Animation. Students enrolled have started these courses by working toward their Basic Media Certificate. This section entails a six-week introduction to the creative media industry, which covers: film, animation, graphics, web design and audio editing.
Animation and Audio Engineering courses take the lead in terms of the most popular streams, proving different to last year's trend, where Audio Courses led in enrollments. Popularity has increased enormously in animation courses and has virtually equaled the numbers of audio students.
The 3D Animation Certificate is an eight-week short course. As part of their final projects for this course, students will have to produce an animated logo, animated character and an architectural walk-through.
For more information, visit www.sae.edu.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
