Qualifications for careers in journalism
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Anyone wanting to work as a journalist is likely to find that practical skills are every bit as important as formal qualifications. You do not have to be a graduate, for example, although the increasing number of young people embarking on some form of higher education in recent years has meant that most people entering the profession are now graduates. There used to be far more opportunities for school leavers to break into the business without attending college or university, and this is still possible if the idea of higher education does not appeal.
For similar reasons the minimum education requirements for prospective journalists tend to be quite low – normally two A levels, of which one should be English. But don’t be misled into thinking that this means getting into the business is easy, or that journalists in general are not well educated. It is simply a reflection of the fact that in some cases practical skills and specific qualities may be of more interest to editors than academic qualifications – mainly because academic qualifications are not in themselves an accurate indicator of whether someone will be a good journalist.
The same applies to your choice of degree subject should you choose to go to university before entering the profession. Unless you have very specific choice of careers in journalism in mind – working as a foreign correspondent, say, or a business specialist – editors will normally be happy to consider applications from candidates with a wide range of traditional university qualifications, from English to economics.
However it’s worth noting that editors are very wary of media studies qualifications, since these are frequently very generalised and do not include any practical journalism training. The explosion of interest in media careers in recent years has resulted in a corresponding increase in the number of such courses provided by colleges, but editors would often prefer candidates to have studied a traditional mainstream degree course or a recognised journalism qualification. (The
training courses
section of the website discusses which courses are recognised by different bodies.) more >
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