The Cost of Training

Only a few days ago, some of the main drama schools in the UK announced that along with other institutions of higher education, they would be charging the maximum of higher fees, £9,000.

Now to those readers in America, you’re not entirely sure what all the fuss is about. £9,000 is nothing compared to what you would pay for some of the best training in your country.

But now finally, in the UK, they have basically done what they’ve done in the US long ago, priced actor training out of the reaches of anyone that isn’t already rich enough to sustain a life of unemployment after they graduate.

The trouble is, that the quality of training at the British drama schools is fairly poor. I mean, you get fancy buildings and big directors and all that, but the actual stuff that’s taught is mainly useless garbage. So now even if you could afford the £9000 for three years and get yourself into debt (and so not afford to pay it back later, when you’re trying to be a jobbing actor) you’ll be getting the same type of training you would have got 3 years ago, but for 3 times as much.

What this should mean is that with the increase in tuition fees, we should expect an increase in the quality of training. Don’t be silly. The cost change in training will not influence the quality of anything, only the quality of profit.

Understand this, it’s like buying a loaf of bread, only today, it’s going to cost you three times as much as it did to you yesterday, but it’s only going to be the same as it was yesterday. Would you buy a car like that? Well, a drama school training will cost you £27,000, I would buy a car instead! Or put a deposit on a house, or see the world, something that you would receive the £27,000 value back.

Now, I do believe that the free education system wasn’t ever going to be sustainable in the long run. There are twice the number of degree bearing institutions than there were 20 years ago and more and more and more drama training courses churning out graduates for whom there are not enough jobs. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t, but let’s face it, they’re causing an environment in which there are more and more applicants for fewer and fewer jobs. It doesn’t make sense.

I used to work for an institution that was so proud of letting lots and lots of students in, specially those who would not normally have gone to university. Yet, with the free tuition system, many of them spent more of their time NOT coming to class, getting drunk, and getting a poor degree. Just because everyone SHOULD be able to go into tertiary education, doesn’t mean that they SHOULD go. We need to have a considerable think about whether everyone’s children need to go to college. It’s an unquestioned belief, particularly in the USA, that you won’t get anywhere without a degree. That’s because the system has demanded it. But there are plenty of highly skilled jobs that do not require a degree education and we should not look down on those people because they didn’t go to college, they didn’t NEED to go to college.

We do not need more actors. I say this freely of an institution of my own which helps people to become actors, but we do it in such as way that is it manageable and affordable and that while they are training and attempting to get work, they are still contributing to their household income, still working. Some of them will become actors, some of them will do this for fun.

The trouble with the high fees is that hundreds of thousands of unemployed actors will NOT pay back their fee loans. Because only when you’re in work will you have to pay something back. So the system will fail because government loan schemes will still place a huge burden on govermnet coffers because a million out of work actors won’t be paying their loans back! So by increasing the fees, they’ll decrease the number of people that actually WANT to become actors, which is great, potentially, but with the number of courses out there that aren’t charging top whack, these people will be encourage to go to smaller, less expensive courses, which also will not be of high standard.

The only thing I know for sure is that it will encourage more students to come to me for training, because we charge relatively nothing in comparison and we don’t waste their time and money fannying about.

One last thought, before you think of paying a small fortune for substandard training here in Britain, don’t forget that other countries such as France, Spain and the USA have excellent actor training provision, and now that you’re willing to pay £9000, you may as well spend it on getting the best training for your money!