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Dyson in Glasgow: Trainees must glow with passion


One of the crucial ways ahead for journalism was perhaps best summed up by Manchester Evening News editor Maria McGeoghan.

Speaking during the closing ‘2020 Vision’ session at the Society of Editors Conference 2010 yesterday, she referred to what was needed more than anything else from future trainees looking for recruitment opportunities.

“They need the right attitude,” said McGeoghan, who had told me earlier how she’s currently recruiting eight new trainees.

“Are you going to love that job? Do you remember the old Ready Brek TV ad? I want trainees who you can almost see glowing with passion and enthusiasm.”

And she’s so right.

As outgoing Aberdeen Press & Journal editor Derek Tucker brutally intimated on Monday, there are too many ‘meejah’ courses run by too many educational establishments opening doors to a torrent of students who end up as luke-warm candidates for the real world.

He was lambasted by academics for being so rude and, of course, we all know that Tucker takes no prisoners when he’s got a bee in his bonnet.

But other editors were just as insistent that at a time when newspapers and journalists are going through the toughest times ever, the last thing the industry wants or needs are lame-duck entrants.

Dave Whaley, editor of the Oldham Evening Chronicle, and my former co-conspirator on the Birmingham Mail’s news desk more than a decade ago, made the very same point.

“We’ve got to be much harder on those applying,” Whaley told me, “we’ve got to make damn well sure that it’s a real vocational choice for those coming into the industry.

“We’ve got to make sure that we recruit the right people for the right reasons at the very start.”

So thank goodness for the changes outlined by Joanne Butcher, chief executive of the National Council for the Training of Journalists, when she spoke to delegates.

Coverage of her contribution so far has focussed on a promised review of the NCE examination for would-be seniors, due for completion by next spring.

But speaking during the ‘Journalists for the future’ session on Monday, Butcher also revealed new requirements the NCTJ has insisted upon for its diploma courses across the UK from this September.

As well as updated detail for the modern world on the hallowed basics of law – shorthand, public affairs and newsgathering – courses wanting to retain accreditation now also have to offer a range of specialist options.

Students must select two from the following: media law for court reporting; video journalism for online; production journalism; sports journalism; the business of magazines; and (from September 2011) broadcast journalism.

It is these more stretching diplomas that will make sure would-be trainees think a little more carefully before deciding ‘I want to be a journalist’, and that they leave more fully equipped if they get on the courses.

And, hopefully, the rejuvenated syllabus will encourage those colleges and universities that are serious about preparing students for real opportunities to seek the ‘gold standard’ accreditation from the NCTJ.

  • Check back here tomorrow morning (one day later than usual) for this week’s Dyson at Large review – a Scottish newspaper, of course.
  • 11 comments

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    • November 17, 2010 at 9:51 am
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      Yes we really have to expect the trainees to be glowing with enthusiasm. After all we are not going to pay for their training and we are going to expect them to work astonishing hours for totally sh*t money and then get rid of them as soon as they qualify for a decent living wage. And these days they have little or no hope of moving on to a proper wage on Fleet Street. Only an outlandish amount of enthusiasm (or very wealthy parents) could possibly make the job attractive.

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    • November 17, 2010 at 10:13 am
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      Oh god. Trainees who “glow with passion” give me the creeps. Just get us the chemist rota will you, and try not to trip over the furniture.

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    • November 17, 2010 at 11:03 am
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      Trainees must glow with passion…..and editors and media execs must treat their trainees, and other editorial staff, properly. Or am I getting uppity?

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    • November 17, 2010 at 11:45 am
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      No talented person “glowing with passion” would want to enter the newspaper industry these days. And many of the senior managers directly responsible for that sad state of affairs were in the room with Steve in Glasgow, no doubt congratulating each other on how well they were shuffling the deckchairs……

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    • November 17, 2010 at 12:00 pm
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      Pay peanuts and you get monkeys. And we all know the only thing monkeys are passionate about . . .

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    • November 17, 2010 at 12:51 pm
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      Ha ha! And will these trainees ‘glowing with passion’ replace the passionate and enthusiastic (and better paid) journalists sacked by the MEN last year by any chance?

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    • November 17, 2010 at 3:09 pm
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      Reading this rubbish made me glow like the Ready Brek man – with anger, rather than enthusiasm for the local paper industry. A trainee on a local paper will be underpaid and exploited no matter how keen and well motivated they. They are set up to fail from the day they get a letter offering them a job. Johnston Press has ruined the local paper I used to work for – which is also the local paper I grew up with. Why Dyson chooses to defend these people and front up their disgusting way of treating trainees (and experienced journalists alike – but that is another matter) is beyond me. He should have the balls to tell the industry to get off the ropes and behave in a way that treats its employees with dignity. That way they might produce a product that people will buy – and be able to offer shareholders a business that actually turns a profit.

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    • November 17, 2010 at 3:48 pm
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      Oh it turns a profit Alice. A very healthy one for most businesses. But not enough for the newspaper groups.

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    • November 17, 2010 at 3:59 pm
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      Alice and others make their points well, but what are they suggesting? Should would-be trainees apply with downbeat attitudes, promising to be moody, cardigan-wearing moaners from the moment they enter the newsroom? Not sure that will get them the job…

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    • November 17, 2010 at 4:19 pm
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      Steve, obviously every industry needs new starters who are passionate and highly motivated. Surely that goes without saying. And I think most potential trainees journalists are: many are wet behind the ears and a bit immature, but that is true of most young people, and nothing a few months working under some older journalists wouldn’t set straight. What angers me is you using this platform to seemingly suggest that the biggest problem facing editors and media owners is the calibre of the people they are recruiting, or looking to recruit. The real problem is the big corporations who look at a spreadsheet and think ‘Let’s get these young ones to sweat and pay them nothing for it – what do they know?’ Editors can point to all the things they demand from a young employee but is about time they looked at what they are offering those young people.

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    • November 17, 2010 at 5:17 pm
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      I see your point, Alice. Mine was highlighting the concern of many editors in Glasgow that there is currently an oversupply of trainees – many from general media courses with no industry accreditation – and that the result is under-qualified and under-motivated entrants. Harder courses might drive up standards. I don’t doubt that better conditions would be welcomed once in work.

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