The Industry

Yes, hands on experience does help (well, duh!) :) but it's harder to get work I think, if you don't have some sort of degree. I have a diploma, but I think even having certificates as well makes you better off. Like actors, techies have to update their skills, especially as new equipment comes out all the time. A course can also be useful as a way of starting a professional career. Due to my course (at Swin.), I got my first professional job with my theatre manager at the university. I also met many people who I now work with regularly, including class mates, previous students and students who graduated after me. My lighting lecturer/theatre manager there is also a big name in the Melbourne industry, having taught many people who have gone on to high jobs in production companies. Being taught by the same person means I have at least one endearing quality about my skills - they can't complain about who (or what) I've learned from.

I'm not sure why exactly it's illegal (I'm sure it has to do with public liability somewhere down the line), but I've been informed of that by a number of professional technicians. I guess because you're working with highly dangerous equipment, and if not done by someone who has the right to do it, it can be lethal (imagine what would happen if someone hung a light and didn't know to put the safety chain on... and the light fell for some reason. Or the clamp wasn't tight enough... Etc. etc.)

Sure, there are other ways of going about being a tech, but having spoken to, and worked with, a lot of techies, a course (whether diploma, certificate or whatever) has been an asset, and no one will hire you if you don't know what you're doing (no one should hire you if you don't have the legal right to do the job you're being asked to do, and no one should accept or do a job that they don't have a right to do).