Value of FXPHD program to the industry at large

I have an opportunity to be trained with a government grant. One of the many hitches is that I need to demonstrate both demand for the job I am training for and the value of the training I will receive. Has anyone here heard or had experience with how artists who "graduate" from the FXPHD program fare in the industry? Does this education carry street cred? I'd welcome any first-hand experiences.

Stu, if you have feedback, I'd appreciate that, as well.

Thanks!

Brandt

I haven't "graduated" from fxphd, but I have signed up and taken some classes. The ones I have taken are top notch, very professional. They show very real, practical examples, and work you through everything you would need to know about the programs to work in a production environment. But that's all I can comment on, the quality of the classes. The coursework is very applicable to this industry.

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My tutorials, if you're into that sort of thing.
http://www.mackdadd.com/html/visualfx.html

I've completed two semesters of fxPhd, taking Nuke, Maya, After Effects and a couple stereoscopic workflow courses. As Hype mentioned, the courses are great and well worth the surprisingly low cost. I fully plan to take more classes as time allows.

The only downside is the quality of material for your reel is pretty weak. You'll need to take what you learn and create a reel from scratch, there's not really any good source material given in the fxPhd classes.

A funny thing happened for me with vfx training, though. I've worked in the video game industry for ten years now and my goal was to change careers with these courses...but the games industry just pays better! Ends up, I'm not willing to take the pay cut to get into film.

The good news is that the video game industry has raging Hollywood envy, so you may find that your visual effects training is the tipping point to get you in a job in game development, if you so desire. They use all the same skill sets, matte painting, video editing, 3D modeling, etc. If you hit up an employer with a cinematic demo reel, even if you have no interactive entertainment background, you will probably get the job. Stereoscopic is even coming into demand.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I've placed couple calls to them to figure out a course sequence based on what I'd like to learn, but haven't heard back yet. I'll see how it goes...