About the Recording Radio Film Connection & CASA Schools
So what is the Recording Radio Film Connection & CASA Schools all about? Glad you asked…
The Recording Radio, Film Connection & CASA Schools (RRFC, for short) is a career training school with an unconventional approach to teaching our students. Instead of gathering students into classrooms to teach them, we place each and every one of our students into the workplace as a student extern and they are paired with a mentor who actually works in that business or industry and has achieved success in it. As our name suggests, RRFC currently has four divisions:
- The Recording Connection, which trains you for a career in audio engineering and music production;
- The Radio Connection, which trains you for a career in broadcasting;
- The Film Connection, which trains you for a career in the film industry; and
- The Chef Apprentice School of the Arts (CASA), which trains you for a career in the culinary and foodservice industries.
All these program areas function the same way, with each student paired with a working professional for one-on-one instruction in the workplace.
Our students follow a structured curriculum. New principles and historical or background information are delivered via our Learning Management System which is accessed by students in eBook format. This preparatory study enables the student to gain a foundational understanding of the principles they will then learn more about and apply during their lessons with their mentor. Our students don’t just learn the skills associated with a career in broadcasting, film, recording or culinary—they actually get in the door of these industries where they can make connections and find ongoing work.
A Brief History
The History of RRFC
RRFC's origins date back to the 1980s, when our founder and CEO James Petulla (then a working DJ at a radio station) was teaching classes at a broadcasting trade school. Seeing a clear disconnect between how the school taught its students and the students' ability to actually break into radio, he believed there had to be a better way to help students get jobs in radio once they graduated. Knowing the radio business, he realized that the people most likely to get hired were the people who had already gotten in the door of the radio stations, not the ones simply flashing their trade school diplomas. He came up with the idea of the mentor-extern approach, where students could bypass the "internship" stage and simply be trained on-the-job by working DJs. Thus, the Radio Connection was born.
The concept worked so well, and so quickly, that James began looking for other industries in which the mentor-extern approach could help students get trained and get started at building their careers. Not long after that, the Recording Connection was added; a few years later, the Film Connection; and more recently, the Chef Apprentice School of the Arts (CASA) was added to the school's offerings.
Today, more than 30 years since our early beginnings, RRFC has helped thousands of aspiring broadcasters, producers, engineers, filmmakers and culinary artists break into rewarding careers in these industries by the mentor-extern approach. Some of our students get hired by their mentors, and some are offered jobs even before they graduate!
Why Do Things Differently?
Why do we do it this way? Wouldn't it be easier just to teach students in classrooms like other schools do?
Probably. But our overarching goal is a little different than most. You see, unlike other schools, our goal isn't simply to teach you a set of skills and leave you to figure out the rest. Our goal is to help you get into a rewarding career. Teaching you the skills is obviously part of that, but we know that takes more than just classroom instruction to break into these industries—it takes getting you in the door, where you can make connections and form working relationships with the people who can hire you and open doors for you.
Besides, don't you think learning the "tricks of the trade" from someone who is actually doing it for a living just makes sense?
We do. And that's why RRFC is here. Click here to learn about the RRFC team.
