The recent AJE Summer Seminar held at De Montfort University focused on the relationhship between the journalism industry and higher education. (Here’s a summary of what happened.)
The first presentation of the day came from Chris Frost, Head of Journalism at Liverpool John Moores, on the experience of work placements as part of a university journalism degree. There were a number of positive examples as well as a few horror stories. One of the key pieces of knowledge shared was the existence of at least two sets of work placement guidelines from our industry bodies:
- The National Union of Journalists’ work placement guidelines
- Skillset work placement guidelines for the creative industries
The NUJ found that two-thirds of all journalism students were required to do a work placement as a compulsory part of the qualification. Skillset research likewise revealed that almost half (44%) of the Creative Media workforce said they had carried out unpaid work to get into the industry.
There are key agreements between the two sets of guidelines, for example:
- Students on work placements should be paid at least the minimum wage or an appropriately higher rate in high-cost areas.
- Students should not be asked to do activities that put them at risk; they should be covered by employers’ insurance for all health and safety issues
The Skillset guidelines are for the creative industries and as such provide a broader set of requirements in a checklist – could the NUJ or other journalism bodies adopt some of these wider guidelines? And is there anything we as journalism educators believe are missing? Add your thoughts below.
Image (c) Spectacle Productions via Flickr.com/CreativeCommons
Journalism Educators (and students) on Work Experience
- Steve Hill on ‘The Economics of Journalism Work Experience’
- Freelance Unbound on ‘How to Avoid Paying for Internships’
- The Nether Regions on experience at the Whitby Gazette
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