Trainee journalists entering the profession are lacking key skills such as news gathering and writing according to a new survey.

More than 70pc of employers who took part in the research said there was a lack of so-called ‘core skills’ as more training courses opt for multimedia lessons as part of the curriculum.

The findings were published at the Society of Editors conference today as three major training bodies announced a new partnership to develop journalism training for the digital media age.

Representatives of the National Council for the Training of Journalists, the Broadcasting Journalism Training Council and the Periodicals Training Council are to establish a joint council to identify training requirements designed to satisfy employers across all three sectors.

Donald Martin, editor of Glasgow’s Evening Times and NCTJ board member, revealed the survey findings at the SoE conference today as employers and educators debated where the future lay for trainees.

The survey, carried out in September and October, canvassed the opinions of 217 media employers, including print, online and broadcast, and 50 training course providers.

Mr Martin told delegates: “We aim to ensure that training providers match expectations and requirements of a fast-changing industry.

“Seventy-one per cent of employers reported a skills gap, 64pc said there was a gap in finding stories.

“These findings are bound to spark important debate on how are trainees to be trained to deal with convergence.

“Our mission is quality training but we must be realistic and get the right balance of traditional and new skills.”

Employers highlighted through the survey skills gaps in six key areas of journalism – finding stories, use of language, writing, media law, shorthand and news gathering.

They also highlighted gaps in ‘new skills’ such as video recording/editing and writing for multilple news platforms.

Mr Martin added: “What the survey is showing is that people are looking for new entrants to have significant skills.

“Our demands are changing and it is very difficult for people. What we’re looking to do through the NCTJ is to shape the training in colleges.

“The message that has come out of the findings is that core skills are absolutely key and then there’s new skills which we need to add. The question is how we do that.

“Shorthand takes a lot of time but the survey said employers want shorthand to remain.”

During a Q&A session, one delegate claimed that there were 756 courses in the UK with the word ‘journalism’ in the title while others said classes focussed on general media studies in the place of shorthand.

Further analysis of the results will be discussed at the NCTJ’s Journalism Skills Conference in Manchester next month.

Comments

Not gruntled (11/11/2008 09:18:58)
Given all the cutbacks on Mr Martin’s own paper, none of his staff have time to find stories – it’s a case of fillign the paper as quickly as they can. Glad he can find the time to leave the office again though…

Middle-aged hack (11/11/2008 12:39:57)
When I was making my way on a newspaper desk I was kept busy from the moment I walked in the door but I was always alert to potential stories, finding angles for existing stories and thinking about ways to follow-up breaking news. The kids we get in the door these days expect everything to be spoon-fed to them. When they have downtime they aren’t re-reading the Daily Mail or Guardian to see what they might have missed, they’re on Facebook and YouTube passively watching the world go by.

Hackmeister General (11/11/2008 23:27:07)
Middle-aged Hack, I completely agree. I’ve been on the newsdesk at a weekly paper for about six months and I am despairing at the lack of drive, enterprise and all-round ability of the trainees and budding reporters. Writing standards and ability to construct sentences, good quote taking, sniffing out stories…all basic traits of journalism that are sadly lacking here. And it’s not just one or two bad apples, it’s three, four, five. I think a lot of it depends on the environment the reporters are in and if it’s not a vibrant or motivating newsroom, then a low-paid hard-pressed trainee is probably not going to give their all. But the lack of drive among the reporters here is astounding – I’m personally leading a one-man crusade to get email and/or flaming’ Facebook banned from our office!

Moany boss (12/11/2008 13:37:25)
M-AH and MG – you’ve cheered me up considerably today. I thought there was something seriously wrong in my management style because of the fact that I have to almost threaten my ‘young’ (late 20s) editors to get anything out of them. No ‘go’, no initiative, no proactivity, nothing. And anything new is greeted with ‘Well do we get more money for that?’. These guys are something else! At their age I was being asked by my boss NOT to overwork, whereas these lot are more interested in, yes, FB and online shopping. MG I wish you the world of luck with your crusade. If you succeed, please roll it out nationally.

Togster (12/11/2008 15:57:11)
Well ive been employed at 3 newspapers in my time, and I have to admit unless a story breaks on facebook, its going to be a while until it finds its way onto a reporters notepad. At my current newspaper the rate at which the reporters venture out of the office (other than cake runs) is close to nil. Its a sad shame that many stories are fed through press releases, much like drip feeding a battery hen. Staffing levels doesnt help. Also its as much part of the editors responsibility to teach basic skills to needy hacks. My last paper was run by someone awaiting the golden handshake with a first class ticket to the gravy train. Its no surprise the new recruits at that paper were hopelessly ignorant of traditional news values.

dina (12/11/2008 16:28:15)
As a cub reporter I would just like to say how unfair these comments are to the many of us out there who work incredibly hard to get out well-written and exclusive stories. I haven’t finished work at 5 since I started as a jouranlist nine months ago, in fact I often work until 9 or 10 and at weekends, and so does everyone else in this weekly paper. Unfortunately, there are a few bad seeds but not everyone in the business should be condemend to this flagrant dressing down. The caring, tenacious journalists are out there and if you can’t find them lead by good example. Remember new reporters have the constant threat of redundancies whispered in our ear.

Wallace (12/11/2008 19:48:51)
Hackmeister General – Count yourself lucky that you have three, four or five reporters to be able to label as bad apples. Not everywhere is so blessed with that many staff.