Home Work & Study
If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.

i'm confused

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited March 27 in Work & Study
I'm studying btec sports and exercise science. I want to get into journalism (preferably sports journalism). I want to know if I should start a course which offers an NCTJ or a degree in journalism. As I want to know which one is preferred by employers. Any help would be appreciated.

I would love the help
Post edited by JustV on

Comments

  • Olly_BOlly_B Posts: 222 Trailblazer
    Hi Matt,

    As a journalist and someone who has recruited journalists; the most important thing most employers are interested in is your ability to find and tell good stories. What will usually make or break your chances is having a good cuttings folder of great stories... whether they are published in your college newspaper, a local freesheet or even on the web.

    That's not to say that doing a degree in journalism isn't valuable, and NTCJ courses are well regarded, but you can have all the qualifications in the world but without demonstrating your abilities and enthusiasm you won't get particularly far. So if you choose to go to university do a degree that you are really interested in and then use the opportunity to develop your journalism at a student newspaper/radio station.

    BTW, have you seen this?
    http://vbulletin.thesite.org/showthread.php?t=127159

    All the best,


    Olly
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There are uni degrees in sports journalism, brighton (i think) has a good one. if you choose to do a degree in journalism i would definitely choose one that is acreditted by the NCTJ as that's something you will eventually need. a good cuttings folder is good, but in my experience employers definitely like you to have done the NCTJ exams as they cover law, politics, shorthand, news writing etc.

    Have a look at the NCTJ website, that gives you a list of all courses - uni ones and short courses.

    The one thing I would say though is that doing a degree in journalism isnt actually that highly thought of by potential employers, they defintely like to see experience as well, like work on student newspapers and local papers.

    And if you're hoping to get a job on national newspapers eventually i would recommend a degree over an NCTJ course. any degree really, then maybe follow it with an nctj course or a masters in journalism. That's not to say you wont get a job on a national paper without a degree but there were figures released recently that showed the vast majority of ppl working at nationals did have a degree.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There is a Foundation degree at the London College of Communications (Arts London) that is two years for Sports Journalism. You can then convert it to a full BA (Hons) after the second year quite easily. I'm pretty sure it's accredited (as they do teeline etc) and you get a lot of extra bits like online and broadcast electives etc.

    Despite what people are saying I think it's worth it getting a degree in journalism. My grades haven't always been too fabulous but the skills I've learnt in my degree with the online electives and sub-editing have been invaluable and I've been approached by the BBC to work on the TopGear.com website purely on my experience.


    If I could offer you any tip though is work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience,work experience.....

    ahem... you get the picture.
Sign In or Register to comment.