Journalism Skills Survey
Almost three-quarters of employers (71 percent) think there is a skills gap among graduates entering journalism.
This has been revealed in a report produced by Skillset in partnership with the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC), Periodicals Training Council (PTC) and Society of Editors.
Employers across all sectors expect graduates to be able to work across multiple platforms.
Web-based publishing continues to increase - more than half of all companies surveyed use the internet as their primary platform for publishing. But many new entrants felt that current training arrangements needed to have a much stronger emphasis on multi-media skills.
Employers pinpointed several traditional and new skills gaps facing their business. For traditional skills these included finding own stories, use of language, writing, media law, shorthand and newsgathering. The standard of written English among new entrants was a major cause of concern.
For new skills, the most frequently mentioned skills gaps were in video skills, writing for search optimisation and multi platforms, assembling news bulletins and audio/visual packages and using the Freedom of Information Act.
To read the report, follow this link:
Final Report on Scoping Project for Convergence Journalism (2009)
And here you can download and read as a separate file what forms appendix 2 of the final report:
Executive summary and full report: National Convergent Journalism Skills Survey
(published by the NCTJ in December 2008)
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