WHO WE ARE

The Apprentice - Mentor Association is a dedicated group of professionals offering on-the-job, one-on-one training in Radio/TV, Recording, Video, Film, and other specialized fields throughout the U.S., Canada, the UK and Australia.

A NOT JUST FOR PROFIT ORGANIZATION: PRINCIPLES AND GOALS
           
In the process of completing your enrollment, selecting your mentor, counseling you throughout your apprenticeship with all the highs and lows, we always ask ourselves: “What would be in the best interest of the student/apprentice?”

Everything must conform to that interest, to that principle:  What serves the best interest of the student/apprentice?   The cornerstone of this stance can be summed up as: One-on-one training with someone who has never taught for us before.  He or she may have taught at some local colleges, or supervised a stable of interns at one time, but has not mentored one-on-one for us. This policy requires that as much as possible, we literally try to contract with a new instructor for each new student apprentice. 

Some may consider this a disadvantage.  On the contrary, we consider it advantageous to the apprentice.  Someone mentoring for the first time for us can bring a freshness and enthusiasm to the project that is invaluable.   Also, a first-time mentor will have no other apprentices he is grooming for employment.  You would reap the benefits of that exclusivity.     As an example, we had an apprentice who had to take a break in his training due to personal and work constraints.   Nearly two years later he came back to his mentor ready to pursue his goal.  Not only was the mentor happy to resume training him, but his business had grown and he was able to hire the apprentice before he even completed his training program.

That opportunity would not have been there for the returning apprentice had another candidate been enrolled in the same area and hade we automatically gone back to that same mentor who had taught for us before. 

However, we deal in realities; what and who is available in your area and the fact that you, the apprentice, have active participation and input on who will train you, play a vital part in matching you with a suitable mentor.  We are open and flexible to our apprentice’s needs and desires.

The adherence to this ‘new instructor for each new apprentice’ principle flies in the face of the outward desires of the parties involved.   These are desires that are based on the traditional classroom or ‘lecture-by-professor’ scenario - the same type of setting that calls for group interaction, camaraderie, and competition with fellow students.   That is the standard.  It's familiar, therefore considered safe.  And it's cost-effective for a school.

Here's a perfect example.   It would be much more profitable to line up each of our apprentices with our associate in town. That would be a huge financial advantage.  We could make a deal with someone in town to take all of our applicants, advertise heavily and bring them 20 apprentices a year. Now instead of $300 – 500 per month, the studio/station/production company is making $10,000 per month, plus they have free labor.  This is called stacking students and there are other organizations (de facto schools) who do this. In their defense they would argue that that kind of training is still better than a school, and they'd be right. But only slightly better.

Stacking students would be a good deal for us as well. No need to talk 20 mentors into doing this.  It’s also a good deal for the teacher (not a personal mentor) in this hypothetical case, who by receiving $10,000 per month could be expected to be our sales agent, by talking people into doing this rather than trying to talk people out of it. (Mentors almost always try to talk their candidate out of it to test their determination.)

The Apprentice-Mentor Association's principles and policies are based on the question:      “Is it in the best interest of the 20 apprentices?” To run them all through one facility? The answer is clearly, NO.

We strive for excellence over profits.

One of the first things that a pure-profit minded organization would do is to routinely reach back and use the same instructor used last year and make little or no effort to locate a new, eager mentor. And from there it's a small step to giving that instructor two students at a time, then three… and then four…

On the surface, faithfully following our principle is a business mistake – inefficient and to our organization’s financial disadvantage.  

So why do we do it?

Our goal is fulfillment of your goals. Your success is our success.  It won't be overnight, but it can and does happen. With motivation and tenacity (and yes, a little luck always helps) it's do-able.  With personalized training and individual attention from your own mentor, it's within reach. It is far less likely to happen if you are just one of another long series of students.

The basis of this program is its one-on-one nature.  Maintaining that principle is essential to its integrity.

HOW WE GOT STARTED

The Apprentice - Mentor Association was conceptualized and implemented as The Broadcast Workshop in 1983 in Honolulu, Hawaii, by Phillip Trout, then a 45-year-old veteran broadcast training school executive

His primary aim was to help aspiring broadcasters throughout the country overcome that old Catch 22 - "You can't get a job without experience and you can't get experience without a job".

And help them he did. By 1988, from his home in Hawaii, he had successfully placed 242 apprentices in the field of broadcasting nationwide.

At the same time he mentored friends/colleagues into forming start up operations of their own... offshoots that he helped nurture into independent companies. He then moved to Hollywood, California where he expanded the method to help people in all walks of life get their dream jobs in Recording Engineering, Film and Video Production, plus specialty fields and professions for vocational rehab in everything from gourmet cooking to antique furniture renovation.

The goal was to revolutionize the concept of education. Rather than the rote study for a standard certificate or diploma suitable for framing after completion of the course, and the unlikelihood of employment, the intent was to emphasize the apprentices immediately getting a foot in the door to significantly increase their chances of securing employment. He recognized that it's not only what you know, but who you know that is the unquestioned, overwhelming influencing factor in employment.

If who you know is so important, the logical next question is, "How do you get to know someone? How do you get a foot in the door and network and get contacts?" The answers, of course, are endless - everything from marrying into the family to being the dog-walker of a friend of a friend. We believe that the best possible relationship you could conceivably have with "someone of influence" is to be their private personal student. If you could somehow finagle your way into being their one-on-one student/apprentice, where you are the teacher's pet because you are the only student - that would be the best relationship of all. Arguably better than even "family".

Today, a databank of over 5,000 mentors in all areas is available and four separate organizations have grown to accommodate that network, organizations that exist through Trout's own mentoring of friends/colleagues in forming start up operations of their own... offshoots that he helped nurture into independent companies. He continues to personally "move" some candidates toward their dream because, he says, "I can't think of a more gratifying feeling than changing a person's life from drab to fulfilling."

The idea of taking people out of their dissatisfied workaday existence and putting them into some of the toughest, yet rewarding and satisfying professions in the world, is what drives this organization.

We are challenged by inspiring people to make a commitment to pursue their goals.

Write us at: contactus@getmentor.com