Adobe Premiere Pro is one of the most commonly used video editing software applications available, and it is used on projects ranging from independent online content creation to hundred-million-dollar Hollywood films. The application lets professional Video Editors effortlessly edit, manipulate, combine and alter video and audio files, and the program is easily accessible for new users looking to learn how to edit video. Video Editors serve a necessary role in any video production since they are the professionals who prepare all of the videos produced by other creatives and get them ready for final production and distribution. Video editing is a creative and technical art form, and anyone looking to break into the field professionally will likely want to learn Premiere Pro. Students interested in learning how to use this program professionally may be interested in becoming professionally certified in Premiere Pro.
Noble Desktop: Premiere Pro Bootcamp
Key Information: This three-day, 18-hour, beginner-friendly program introduces students to basic and advanced video editing techniques using Adobe Premiere Pro. The course is available live online or in-person at Noble Desktop’s Manhattan campus. Students who complete the course will receive a certificate of completion, and all students enrolled in the class can retake it for free within one year.
Students seeking an in-depth, accelerated video editing education should consider enrolling in Noble Desktop’s Premiere Pro Bootcamp. In this course, students will learn how Premiere is utilized by professional Video Editors, and they will learn all of the major editing concerns that editors need to address on virtually every project. Students will receive expert instruction from Noble’s experienced video editing experts and will learn practical lessons they can apply to virtually any level of video production work. Whether you are an experienced Video Editor looking to brush up on their skills before a certification exam or a hobbyist looking to learn how to do your own work, this course will provide you with the training you need. If you want to start a new career in video editing, this course can also be a great place to start, though professional Video Editors will need additional training.
The course begins with lessons in the basics of conventional video editing, including lessons on using Premiere Pro cutting and merging tools to create and combine film clips. Students will also learn how to manage audio files and how editors are tasked with aligning video and audio files as they make cuts to the film. Students will then learn more advanced editing techniques such as adding transitions to their cuts, working with multiple camera angles, and utilizing the Premiere Pro interface to edit dozens of video files together at once. The course concludes with advanced Premiere Pro training covering skills like altering footage speed, adding and removing color from shots and chromakey editing. In addition to technical training with Premiere Pro, students will also learn editing techniques that are applicable regardless of the application used such as maintaining continuity between shots and how editing creates meaning in the finished projects.
This program runs for three days, and students can opt to attend a class in-person at Noble Desktop’s Manhattan campus or online in a private digital classroom. Either way, students will receive top-quality, live instruction from experienced video editing professionals who can provide students with assistance and feedback on their work in real time. In these classes, students will have the opportunity to work on real-world video editing projects and develop skills that they can apply to almost any editing job they encounter. The program aims to teach students professional video editing skills though anyone hoping to start a new career will need more training and experience (which Noble can help with in advanced, certificate-granting career programs). On top of expert instruction, students enrolled in this course will get a certificate of completion and be able to retake the course within one year (free of charge), giving themselves even more time to work with professional instructors and develop their video editing skills.
Noble Desktop: Video Editing Certificate
Key Information: This career-focused, certificate-granting program is offered to students as an in-person class at Noble Desktop’s Manhattan campus or as a live online class. The course runs for two months (for full-time students) or four months (for part-time students). In addition to receiving professional instruction and real-time feedback, students can receive career assistance in one-on-one mentoring sessions. Students who enroll in the course can take the class again for free within one year.
Students looking to receive a more robust video editing experience may want to enroll in Noble Desktop’s Video Editing Certificate, a career-focused training program meant to prepare students for working in video production. This course, which covers training in Premiere Pro and other important Adobe video editing applications, aims to provide students with the toolkit they need to find work as professional Video Editors. In this course, students will work hands-on practical video editing projects that they can add to their job materials, and they will be able to learn in-depth, transferable skills that can be applied to almost every video editing project. Students looking to turn video editing into their careers will want to consider this course as an alternative to film school.
In this course, students will learn historically grounded and industry-recognized editing techniques, theories and philosophies that they can use to give weight and meaning to the projects they are working on. After becoming comfortable with basic editing techniques, students will learn how to use Premiere Pro to create video clips from raw footage and then edit, manipulate and compile those clips into a finished video project. Students will learn how to edit single video files, maintaining audio and visual continuity between cuts, and they will learn how to add transitions and effects to their edits. Once students are comfortable with this, they will start working on complex, multicam projects that will have them creating and compiling clips from large amounts of simultaneously produced footage. Students will also learn how to use Adobe After Effects to create digitally animated assets that can be edited into a video file and how Adobe Audition can be used to edit, correct, and mix audio files that will be included as part of the finished video project. These skills will provide students with the tools necessary to start editing complete, professional-quality video productions.
Since this is a career-focused program, students will be working with real-world examples of video footage, and working on hands-on exercises to create sample video edits that students can take with them onto the job market. This course is offered as an in-person course at Noble Desktop’s Manhattan campus or a live online class. Either way, students will have the opportunity to learn from Noble Desktop’s experienced professional instructors, who can provide them with assistance and feedback in real time. Students enrolled in this course will also have the opportunity to take advantage of career development opportunities, including a demo reel-building workshop and one-on-one career mentoring sessions. The course also offers a free retake within one year, giving students even more time to learn video editing fundamentals and receive hands-on experience on video editing projects.
Adobe: Certified Premiere Pro Professional
Key Information: Adobe offers professional Video Editors the opportunity to receive certification in Premiere Pro through their Adobe Certified Professional program. To complete this certification, students must complete a 50-minute exam that covers video editing concepts and practical Premiere Pro skills. The certification lasts for three years, and Adobe offers free and paid study materials.
Adobe offers a robust certification program for professional Video Editors through its Certified Premiere Pro Professional exam. This exam tests students' understanding of the basic video editing process, the common industry terminology and theories they will encounter on professional editing jobs and the specific application of Adobe Premiere Pro to video editing projects. Students will be tasked with demonstrating knowledge of technical and legal industry-related knowledge (such as who a Video Editor reports to, how client-editor relations operate and common copyright laws) and common workflow tasks and responsibilities. Beyond this, the bulk of the exam covers Premiere Pro-specific skills like managing large projects within the interface, modifying visual elements in various ways, and preparing digital media for publication. The exam aims to test a student’s understanding of the application and their ability to complete practical editing tasks using Premiere Pro.
The exam lasts for 50 minutes and is available to be taken at a private testing center or from a student’s home office. Owing to the exam’s Creative Cloud integration, students can work with Premiere Pro in real-time during the test, giving them more space to demonstrate their skills. The exam will ask students theoretical and practical questions concerning the use of Premiere Pro and video editing broadly, so students will need to study for both sides of the exam. Adobe anticipates that most students will need approximately 150 hours of practical training to pass the exam. Adobe offers students free study guides and exam preparation materials, including practice exams, to help students become comfortable with the format. The certification students receive for completing the exam lasts for three years, at which point students will need to take the most recent version of the exam to keep their certification up-to-date.
Adobe: Adobe Professional Video Design Speciality
Key Information: While not an official certification in and of itself, Adobe offers a video design specialty certification for students who complete the Premiere Pro certification exam and at least one other exam. These exams are unchanged, so students will have 50 minutes to complete them, and the certification will last three years.
Adobe also offers a slightly more expansive certification option for students who pass multiple certification exams through their Adobe Professional Video Design Speciality program. To complete this certification, students will need to pass the Adobe Premiere Pro Certified Professional exam and either the Adobe Photoshop Certified Professional exam, the Adobe After Effects Certified Professional exam or both of these. These exams are not modified, and students can take any or all of them at their own convenience, making this a good way to develop their skills and credentials over time. The After Effects and Photoshop exams are constructed similarly to the Premiere Pro exam, with questions covering practical on-the-job skills that any professional in the field would be expected to know, alongside practical skills questions covering the use of the tool in question.
Since these exams are taken separately, the general requirements for each of them remain constant whether or not you are aiming to complete the video design specialty requirement. This means that each exam will still run for 50 minutes and will be offered online or in-person at a dedicated testing center. Adobe does not offer unique training services for completing these exams. Each certification involved in the process lasts for three years, and students will need to renew their video design specialty certification as soon as their oldest certification expires. Adobe anticipates that professionals will need approximately 150 hours of practical experience to complete the exam though there is an overlap between many practical and industry skills tested by these exams.
Lumenbrite: Premiere Pro Bootcamp
Key Information: This five-day full-time training program combines multiple Premiere Pro training courses into a skills bootcamp. Students can learn in-person or online; in either context, students will receive live instruction from experienced instructors. Students who complete the program will receive a certificate of completion.
Lumenbrite offers a collection of introductory and advanced Premiere Pro training seminars brought together in its Premiere Pro Bootcamp. In this training program, students will learn how to navigate the Premiere Pro interface, begin creating film clips and cutting those clips together in a completed edit. Once students are comfortable with the basics of the program, they will learn the more advanced editing techniques that the program allows such as how to digitally alter light and color, utilize multicam edits and work with upwards of dozens of different video files at once. This course aims to prepare students for the kind of professional editing tasks that they can expect to encounter on film and television projects. Students will also learn how to prepare files for upload and publication and optimize them for social media and other online platforms.
This course combines the two introductory essential skills courses that Lumenbrite offers for Premiere Pro with a discount offered in the tuition. The course runs for five days of full-time instruction and is available in-person or online. Students will work on hands-on video editing projects, and either delivery method will give students a chance to work with live instructors who can assist them in their Premiere Pro training. This course provides students with practical video editing exercises to help them produce projects to add to their demo reel. In addition, while this course is not structured around the Adobe Certified Premiere Pro Professional exam, it is a good place to start preparing for the exam in an advanced capacity.
Ledet Training: Adobe Premiere Pro Bootcamp
Key Information: This five-day training program combines introductory and advanced Premiere Pro training courses. These classes provide students with practical Premiere Pro skills and are discounted relative to enrolling in all three courses separately. Students who complete the program will receive a certificate of completion.
This Adobe Premiere Pro Bootcamp is a compilation of three courses: Ledet’s Premiere 101 (Intro), Premiere 201 (Advanced), and Premiere: Producing Virtual Reality Content. In this course, students will learn basic and advanced Premiere Pro skills. The program aims to take students from casual video editing hobbyists to professional Premiere Pro users in only a few days. Students will learn how to handle basic editing tasks and utilize the Premiere Pro interface to simplify the editing process. Students will also learn how to make more advanced cuts, add graphics, transitions and text to their edits, and how to digitally alter aspects of the video files using tools such as Chromakey and greenscreen technology. Students will complete the course by learning how Premiere Pro can be used to build VR and other 3D video content for platforms like the Oculus Rift.
This course bundles together multiple individual lessons, providing a significant discount for students enrolling in the program. The course lasts for five days of full-time study, and all of the courses are taught by live instructors who provide students with feedback and assistance on their editing work. All of the lessons covered in the course are hands-on examples that let students complete real-world editing projects that they can add to their personal design portfolios. The course is also designed to provide students with the skills they need to begin preparing to pass the Adobe certification exam, though it does not fully build its lessons around this exam prep. Students who complete the course will receive a certificate of completion.
FMC Training Network: Premiere Pro Master Class
Key Information: This training program combines FMC’s two introductory and advanced Premiere Pro training courses, offering students a discount for enrolling in both programs. The lessons are designed to assist students to pass the Adobe Certified Premiere Pro Professional exam, but the cost of the exam is not included in the course tuition.
FMC is a certified Adobe certification training institute and provider and they offer a Premiere Pro Master Class that combines their Introductory Premiere Pro and Advanced Premiere Pro course into a comprehensive professional training program. In this course, students will learn essential video editing techniques and gain valuable experience navigating the Premiere Pro interface and taking advantage of the program's tools. Students will learn how to create film clips and the techniques they need to edit those clips into new, creative projects. Students will work with digital replacement technology and learn how Premiere Pro can be utilized to make subtle or substantive alterations to video and audio files. This course aims to provide students with the training they need to start working with Premiere Pro in a professional environment.
This course runs for five days, and the Master Class represents a significant discount on the tuition of the two courses that it combines. Students enrolled in these classes will receive expert instruction from industry-certified training professionals. Courses are scheduled separately, so students will have increased flexibility in how to receive this training. The lessons are centered around hands-on exercises designed to maximize students' chances to succeed. As an Adobe-certified training provider, FMC offers students the opportunity to take an Adobe certification exam, and their training courses are built with this accreditation in mind. However, the cost of sitting for the exam is not included in the price of the Master Class.
Digital Workshop Center: Adobe Premiere Pro Level 1 and Adobe Premiere Pro Level 2
Key Information: These two part-time, live online classes teach students the basic and advanced features of Premiere Pro, respectively. These courses run for four-hour meetings and are taught by professional instructors in real-time online. Students who complete these courses will receive a certificate of completion and can take the course again within one year.
Digital Workshop Center offers a pair of Adobe Premiere Pro training programs in their Level 1 and Level 2 courses. These are beginner and intermediate courses, respectively and aim to teach students the skills they will need to work with Premiere Pro professionally. The Level 1 program introduces students to the basic principles of video editing and the various tools Premiere Pro provides to streamline the editing process. In this course, students will learn how to clip and combine video files, how to work with an audio file and how to prepare a video for publication. In the advanced course, students will learn non-linear editing techniques, audio mixing skills, how to add transitions to an edit and how to work with ChromaKey and other digital replacement technologies. These courses will provide students with a robust, professional Premiere Pro education.
These courses are each four-day, part-time classes that are available in-person or online. All of the classes are taught by experienced Premiere Pro experts, and the hands-on lessons give students the chance to get practical experience making cuts and creating completed video projects. Students who enroll in these classes will receive course materials and tech support and anyone who takes the course will be able to retake the class within one year. Students will need some knowledge of Adobe Photoshop to complete the course and while they are not necessarily a single track, students hoping to enroll in the Level 2 course will need at least a basic knowledge of Premiere Pro to complete the course. Students who complete the program will have a leg up when preparing to complete a certification exam.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Difference Between a Certificate and a Certification?
Many students new to video editing may be surprised to learn that certificates and certifications are not the same, even though they are both ways to become professionally certified. Certifications and certificates each demonstrate a student’s proficiency with Premiere Pro, but they gauge that proficiency differently. Certification is awarded to students who pass proctored skills exams overseen by first-party publishers (in this case, Adobe). These exams test a student’s existing program knowledge and general video editing skills. They are usually completed in under two hours, and they come with no additional training (though many service providers offer free or paid study and exam preparation materials). Certification tends to lapse, meaning students will need to retake the exam after a fixed period of time to keep their credentials up-to-date.
Certificates are more akin to diplomas and are awarded to students who complete industry-recognized training programs such as the ones offered by Noble Desktop. These courses give students the experience and training they need to use Premiere Pro professionally, and the certificate is an official marker of this training. Students who enroll in these courses do so to receive hands-on experience and instruction. As such, certificate programs tend to be longer and more expensive than exams, but students sitting for exams have presumably spent the time and energy to get their skills training from other sources. Certificates awarded at the end of these courses do not expire.
Do I Need to Get Certified to Get a Job?
For most job openings, no, you won’t need to be officially certified in Premiere Pro to find a job as a Video Editor. While this may differ from opening to opening, most professional video editing jobs won’t make a specific certification or professional certificate a job requirement. That said, becoming certified is a good way to set yourself apart from other applicants in the eyes of prospective employers. Enrolling in a certificate program is a good way to build up your demo reel, arguably the most important part of the job application process.
What Accreditation Path is Right for Me?
The answer to this question is likely to come down to how much experience you already have working with a program like Premiere Pro. If you have technical training, on-the-job experience or other prior Premiere Pro instruction, you are likely to want to pass a certification exam to demonstrate your existing skills with the program. Students without this prior background are more likely to want to enroll in a certificate-granting program since they are unlikely to be able to pass a certification exam without prior training.
Students should also consider their long-term goals and how much additional training they think they will need. For example, students looking to find a new job in video editing will need training in skills other than Premiere Pro. These students will want to consider enrolling in a more immersive skills training program like Noble Desktop’s Video Editing Certificate program. This course will give students career-focused training and aims to take students with no prior video editing knowledge and prepare them for a career in film, television or online content creation.
Students who are only interested in learning the application for their personal projects will instead want to enroll in a shorter, focused training program that teaches them how to use the application for common video editing tasks. These courses are better suited for students who aren’t looking to change careers immediately but are looking to learn a new, marketable, creative skill. Students will also be able to take this training and more easily pass a certification exam, and they can build on this training in the future in a course like a career-focused certificate-granting bootcamp.
How Can I Prepare for My Certification Exam?
One of the best ways to prepare for a certification exam is to take a refresher course in Premiere Pro, especially if you haven’t been using the program professionally for some time. While many training providers do offer free course materials for students looking to prepare for certification exams, including sample exams and workbooks, many students find that they need the benefit of professional instruction and guided training to perfect their skills. For these students, the best option is a live training program, like any of the shorter bootcamps mentioned in this article. As an added incentive, since Adobe expects students to have about 150 hours of training to successfully pass their exam, students may find that taking a certificate-granting course is a good way to learn things about the program that they may not know, especially if their training is not the most up-to-date (since Premiere Pro, like many Adobe applications, is frequently updated).