More than a third of students who studied the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism last year are currently working in other professions, according to a new report.
The research into the destinations of 205 individuals who finished their courses between May and October last year found 35pc were employed in other sectors rather than journalism.
The regional press was the most popular destination for students who completed the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism, according to surveys carried out 6-10 months after completing their courses.
But the report, commissioned by the NCTJ and released today, found that only 24pc of those in work after their courses were employed by regional or local newspapers.
The survey also highlighted poor pay among journalists because the average median salary among those surveyed was £17,500, £3,000 less than the average graduate level.
Of those surveyed, 19pc were earning less than £10,000 and 3pc were unpaid, while only 4pc were earning more than £30,000.
According to the survey, 82pc of those who completed the diploma were in work, with 30pc of them working for newspapers – of which 24pc were regional titles and 6pc were nationals.
11pc were working in the magazine sector, 7pc were in television, 4pc were in radio and 6pc were working in PR.
But 35pc were not working in journalism when surveyed, instead being employed in sectors such as manufacturing, education and administration.
The survey found a higher employment rate of 96pc for those who had achieved the ‘gold standard’ of A-C grades in all NCTJ exams and 100 words per minute shorthand, which fell to 72pc for those who had not achieved their diplomas.
Of those in work, 79pc of them were in a journalism-related job, which rose to 86pc for those who had achieved the gold standard.
Among those who had jobs, 58pc of them were full-time or open-ended, with a further 13pc on contracts of 12 months or longer.
Of those with journalism jobs, 77pc felt that having their NCTJ qualification was with a necessity or an advantage and the same per cent said the diploma prepared them well for employment.
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My advice to these students is think about banking, law, medicine, insurance, fund management, foreign exchange dealing, animal husbandry, plastering, plumbing or bricklaying instead. In any of these you will start off pretty well paid and can be fairly certain of a job for life. In journalism now the only certainty is a P45, and in newspapers particularly there are virtually no careers that will see out your working lives.
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Had an editor who used to complain about this to the NCTJ. He said every year there would be a surplus of qualified journalists waiting for jobs and, every year, their number would be added to the number from the year before.
This has been going on for more than a decade.
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All journalism is freelance these days, even the staffers
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Are these figures that unusual for any vocational course? I’d bet a similar number of social workers, teachers, even nurses don’t end up in that career. That’s not to say there’s no problem but I’m not sure how much this study proves.
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The journalism course providers currently conning thousands of keen young people into thinking they’ll get a reasonably paid journalism job are being grossly unethical and irresponsible. This won’t change though, will it? These providers will continue to pocket the cash (often loaned cash) of these students and continue pretending that there are loads of good journalism jobs out there. When those of us who actually work in this dying industry know otherwise.
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You dont need journalism skills now. Just be a whizz at IT and social media and your ed will love you (if you have an ed). But please don’t think there is career in papers! It’s over. They won’t tell you that in colle
ge though.
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Sad.
Went to the best training school (Cardiff), and have been laid off from two jobs in the last year and a bit. I know a few others in shaky positions too.
Moving into teaching.
Until we realise that websites won’t pay the bills, we will continue this irreversible decline. Return to a digital bundle via tablet, like in Canada, or perish.
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Lots of wise words in previous comments here.
The game is up, really, but those with a financial interest in churning out newly qualified journalists will continue to do so until enough people work out they’re throwing money away on course fees. In fact, its the sort of scandal newspapers would report on if it was happening in a different industry…
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I read this week that managers of Pret a Manger shops are on £40k in London. That’s far more than the average journalist will earn, particularly on the regional press. What’s more, people have to eat – reading newspapers is not essentia, so there is job security working for a sandwich shop.l.
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overthehill – that’s exactly what my old boss used to say.
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I heard recently that local editors ringing up training colleges in search of staff are finding that the students aren’t remotely interested. Hardly surprising is it? No job security; probably not much in the way of mentoring; poor pay…er…that’s it.
Those skills are, however, transferrable and to those in this thread who think some kind of con is being perpetrated, I would merely point out that what you are learning is not wasted, and can be applied to great effect across many other industries and callings. Journalism still needs to be trained – it’s the platforms that are changing.
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Perhaps it is the usual story of colleges selling a dream, in this case that of becoming a journalist, in order to attract income. When I taught Public Affairs on an NCTJ course a number of years ago, it was patently obvious that many of the students wouldn’t end up in journalism, irrespective of their abilities.
That said, the same could be said of law courses. Many lawyers, myself included, don’t work in the legal profession for a substantial part of their careers, although I was able to use my legal qualifications to write law features.
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There’s a huge difference between studying on a journalism course and succeeding,
We are told that 96 per cent of those who ‘meet the NCTJ gold standard’ (what would have been called ‘passing’ in the olden days, the others ‘failed’ as it used to be known) are working in areas related to their courses.
That seems like a pretty good number to me.
Is it surprising that students who ‘failed’ are not working in journalism or related industries?
I’m not seeing the story here…
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I worked with a bloke, sadly since deceased, who had no qualifications whatsoever, invented his own shorthand, and was the best all-round reporter I ever met in 40-plus years in the trade. His sort wouldn’t get near a job nowadays but he left a lot of people with bits of paper standing when it came to sniffing out stories and writing them properly.
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Hawkeye: I know a bloke without a single exam to his name, having left a tough south London school at 14, who joined Melody Maker as a tea boy and ended up as the sport editor on a high-profile national. He wouldn’t get near the job either these days. Sad.
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A few years ago there was a lad studying the NCTJ course while doing a twice-weekly work placement on the newspaper I worked for at the time. It was soon clear to all who in the office that he did not possess most of the qualities needed to make it as a journalist and. despite our best efforts to help him get to grips with things, over the course of the year there was very little sign of improvement.
I believe such concerns were raised by newspaper management with those responsible for the course but nothing was done about it – the word was apparently that, with his academic nature, the student comfortably passed exams such as Law and was therefore seen as an asset rather than a failure. Apart from the work placement, everything seemed to be geared around passing the course rather than training someone as a journalist.
But regardless of his qualifications, the lad in question was never likely to come across well enough during interviews or have a good enough reference from the newspaper to secure a job in the industry and so it proved – and I’m sure there will have been plenty of other examples like this.
The qualification is by no means an automatic entry route into the industry and what you do on work placements can certainly play a big part in how things pan out. I think it’s also worth considering that, from experience, there are usually some on the NCTJ courses who have not yet passed their driving tests and this can often count against them when applying for reporting jobs.
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Redundancies everywhere and it’s only a third? I thought it would be more!
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Adding to my previous point: the return to a bundle is the only hope. The dead tree is, well, dead.
In Canada they’ve made inroads into tablet editions, and the ad revenue pays for proper journalism, not just re-writes and cat videos.
Have a read, if you’re at all bothered/optimistic.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/06/newsonomics-in-toronto-the-star-is-making-its-own-big-bet-on-tablets/
http://newsonomics.com/newsonomics-la-presses-bet-on-tablets-and-its-crossover-calculus/
Let me know what you think, too. The numbers seem to add up. More hope for this lot than our obsession with worthless clicks.
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Sub it out – what qualities are those please? I am a a-level student and is hoping to find an apprenticeship route in journalism with the nctj which would include practical experience in a newsroom.
Also, I realise that newspapers are on a slow decline especially regional press but would people say is any part of the industry relatively secure?
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