6 Best Adobe Premiere Pro Courses For High Schoolers That Build Real Skills

Your high schooler comes to you, eyes wide with excitement, talking about a YouTuber they love or a TikTok trend they want to recreate. They don’t just want to watch videos; they want to make them. This moment is more than just a passing hobby; it’s an open door to developing one of the most valuable communication skills of their generation.

Why Video Editing Is a Key Skill for High Schoolers

It’s easy to see a desire to edit videos as just another form of screen time, but it’s so much more. Learning to edit teaches the art of storytelling. It forces a creator to think about pacing, structure, and how to hold an audience’s attention from beginning to end.

These aren’t just "soft skills." They are project management in disguise. Your teen will learn to organize files, manage deadlines, solve technical problems, and make thousands of small decisions to bring a single vision to life. This is the kind of practical, hands-on experience that builds real-world competence.

Furthermore, this skill has a direct impact on their future opportunities. A well-edited video essay can make a college application pop. A digital portfolio can be the deciding factor for an internship. Whether they pursue film, marketing, journalism, or even engineering, the ability to communicate ideas visually is a massive advantage.

Udemy’s Premiere Pro CC for a Solid Foundation

So, your teen is ready to dive in, but you’re wondering where to start. You want something comprehensive that covers all the bases, but you don’t want to break the bank on a multi-week workshop, especially if you’re not yet sure how deep this interest runs. This is where a platform like Udemy shines.

Udemy is essentially a massive library of on-demand courses, and their offerings on Adobe Premiere Pro are fantastic for beginners. Look for highly-rated, project-based courses like "Adobe Premiere Pro CC – Essentials Training." These courses are often incredibly thorough, taking students from the absolute basics of importing clips to advanced techniques like color correction and audio mixing.

The best part for parents is the value. Udemy frequently runs deep discount sales, allowing you to purchase a 20+ hour course for the price of a couple of movie tickets. It’s a low-risk, high-reward way to give your child a structured, encyclopedic knowledge of the software without a major financial commitment.

LinkedIn Learning for Project-Based Video Skills

Perhaps your teen learns best by doing. They don’t have the patience for a 20-hour theoretical course; they want to make a cool travel video now. For this kind of learner, LinkedIn Learning (formerly the legendary Lynda.com) is a perfect fit.

The first thing to do is check with your local library. Thousands of library systems offer free access to the entire LinkedIn Learning catalog with just a library card. This is an incredible resource for families, providing professional-level training at no cost.

LinkedIn Learning courses are typically shorter and laser-focused on a specific outcome. Instead of a massive "everything about Premiere" course, you’ll find classes like "Editing a Short Documentary" or "Creating a Compelling VLOG." This project-based approach provides quick wins, which is a huge motivator for high schoolers, helping them build skills and confidence simultaneously.

Adobe’s Classroom in a Book for Certification Prep

You have a teen who is serious. They’re not just dabbling; they’re talking about film school, a career in media, and wanting to prove they have what it takes. When the commitment level is this high, it’s time to look at the official source: Adobe itself.

Adobe’s "Classroom in a Book" series is the gold standard for mastering their software. It’s the official training series developed with the help of Adobe product experts. This isn’t a casual watch-along; it’s a structured, rigorous curriculum that combines a physical (or digital) book with downloadable lesson files.

The ultimate goal here is often certification. Completing this training is the best way to prepare for the Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) exam. For a high schooler, earning an industry-recognized credential like this is a powerful differentiator on college applications and resumes. It’s a formal validation of their expertise.

Skillshare Classes for Creative & Niche Techniques

Once your teen has the foundational skills down, they’ll start wanting to develop their own unique style. They’ll stop asking "how do I make a cut?" and start asking "how do I make this feel more cinematic?" This is the perfect time to introduce them to Skillshare.

Think of Skillshare as a creative playground. The platform is filled with thousands of shorter classes taught by practicing creators, YouTubers, and filmmakers. It’s less about learning the software’s every function and more about learning a specific creative application.

Here, they can find a class on creating smooth, stylized transitions, another on color grading to evoke a certain mood, and another on animating titles like their favorite content creator. Skillshare helps bridge the gap between technical proficiency and developing a true artistic voice. It’s the ideal next step for the intermediate editor looking for inspiration.

Domestika’s Courses for an Artistic Approach

If your high schooler is a true artist—someone who sees video as a medium for personal expression, much like painting or photography—then Domestika is an incredible resource. This platform feels less like a software tutorial site and more like an international online art school.

Domestika’s courses are beautifully produced and taught by acclaimed professionals from around the world. The focus is less on the "what button to push" and more on the "why" behind the creative process. A course might focus on cinematic storytelling, using light and color to create emotion, or developing a personal narrative through film.

This is the platform for the aspiring filmmaker, the documentarian, or the video artist. It elevates the conversation from simply "editing" to "directing" and "creating." It connects the technical craft to a deeper, more meaningful artistic vision, which can be incredibly inspiring for a creative teen.

Bring Your Own Laptop for a Free, Quality Start

Let’s be practical. An Adobe Premiere Pro subscription isn’t cheap, and you want to be sure this is more than a fleeting interest before you commit. The good news is, you can test the waters for free without sacrificing quality.

Before you pay for anything, have your teen download DaVinci Resolve. It’s a professional-grade video editing, color correction, and audio post-production software used on major Hollywood films. The free version is astonishingly powerful and more than enough for any beginner or intermediate user.

Let them start here. There are countless high-quality, free tutorials for DaVinci Resolve on YouTube. If your teen dedicates themselves to learning it for a few months and is still passionate and producing great work, then you know the investment in an Adobe subscription and a paid course is well-justified. It’s a fantastic, no-cost way to gauge commitment.

From Coursework to Creating a Video Portfolio

Finishing a course is the first step, not the last. The real learning begins when a student takes the concepts from the tutorials and applies them to their own unique ideas. The ultimate goal is not a certificate of completion, but a portfolio of completed work.

Encourage your teen to start building a simple portfolio. This can be a dedicated YouTube or Vimeo channel where they upload their best projects. Aim for 3-5 polished videos that showcase their skills. This is the tangible result of all their learning.

What kind of projects? It could be anything! A short profile of a grandparent, a promotional video for their school’s drama club, a cinematic edit of a family vacation, or a music video for a friend’s band. Moving from coursework to creating for an audience is how they’ll truly master the craft and build the confidence to call themselves a creator.

Supporting this interest is about more than just buying software; it’s about investing in your child’s voice. You’re giving them the tools to tell stories, share ideas, and express themselves in the native language of the 21st century. And that is a skill that will serve them for a lifetime.