One of the questions I’m often asked by younger peeps, and those who are closer to my age, is how I became a journalist. This is a really interesting subject especially with the severe economic crisis that is currently affecting the media and education industries. I took a ‘conventional’ route, but looking back and at the situation with jobs and the media sector right now, I would say that I don’t believe you necessarily need to spend thousands of pounds on getting professional accreditation to be in this field anymore.

This is a controversial stance to take, but before I explain why I think this is true, I’ll outline the academic path I took:

1. GCSE’s/A Levels (one in Media Studies) in Leicester.
2. Degree in English Language and Literature from The University of Manchester
3. MA in Newspaper Journalism from Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism

= The cost of all this, going back a decade or so, would amount to about £30-40K.

I’m including my living costs while at both Universities, but not the cost of any work experience placements I chose to take up during these times. If you weigh this up against the average newspaper journalist’s starting salary, there is no comparison. You’re looking at about £12-15k, which is shocking after what you’re expected to shell out to get to this point. And that is if you’re lucky enough to get a job. Broadcast journalists are looking at more like £18-20K, but are obviously expected to pay more for courses – and hair products From 2012 onwards, you can double the above costs – but not your starting salary!

My lecturer at Nottingham Trent University told me that, from my class of 30 students in 2003-04, only two people are still working as journalists. The rest have gone into PR, marketing or something else that is well paid and not so physically demanding. You may laugh, but 10-12 hour shifts aren’t fun or practical if you want to have a family, etc. Luckily I don’t, but that didn’t stop me from seeing  early on that if I wanted to be financially stable, then I needed to change tack quickly. There is the argument that journalists don’t go into journalism for money – but then why the massive pay gap between local papers and tabloid nationals? Yes it’s good if you don’t value money and that’s to be applauded in some respects. But not everyone can afford to be so principled in these times.

My best advice is – experience and contacts are everything. If you walk into a job interview, then what is going to set you apart from the thousands of other journalism students that are churned out by universities every year? Nothing much except what you’ve done and what you have in your portfolio. As an employer myself, I have to say that what made candidates stand out to me is what experience and skills they have, not if they passed their Central Government NCTJ exams. Who hasn’t?

This is one of the reasons why I set Rockhaq up – to let schools, colleges and universities access an affordable but fun and realistic way to let their students and pupils gain this type of experience and from a young age. I believe that real life work should be apart of the curriculum and not seen as an added extra or ‘luxury’. Many media outlets are crashing and burning in the current climate, so even work experience placements are thin on the ground. What you gonna do?

Next post: How my work experience helped me to nail a great job

Are you a student journalist or interested in the media? What do you think your courses have cost you? Let me know below.