More than a third of the students who studied for the National Council for the Training of Journalists’ diploma in journalism last year are not working for media outlets.
According to a report commissioned by the NCTJ, 35% of the students are employed in non-journalistic sectors some six or so months on from finishing their course.
But the picture is far brighter for the most successful diploma graduates. The research found that 86% of them quickly obtained journalism-related jobs.
They were the ones who had attained the “gold standard” in their studies: A-C grades in all NCTJ exams and 100 words per minute shorthand.
The report, Destinations of NCTJ diploma in journalism students, was designed to provide comparable results to the graduate destinations survey conducted by the Higher Education Statistics Authority.
Of the 1,096 people who completed their NCTJ diploma studies between May 2014 and October 2014, 205 (19%) responded to researchers’ questions.* The gender split was 53% female to 47% male.
Of that sample, 82% who had completed the NCTJ diploma were in work, compared with 70% of leavers from higher education courses across all subjects.
Gold standard diploma students fared best, with 96% in work, compared with 90% of those who merely passed the diploma, and 72% of those who did not complete the course.
So where did the students go? Most (30%) are working for newspapers, followed by magazines (11%), online or digital (9%), television (7%) and radio (4%). Of the rest, 6% are working in public relations and 35% in other sectors.
But their journalistic earnings are poor. The median salary for the graduates is £17,500 compared to the £20,500 figure for higher education graduates as a whole.
Drilling down further into pay rates, we discover that 19% are earning less than £10,000 and 3% were unpaid, while only 4% were earning more than £30,000.
Looking back at their courses, 77% reported that the diploma prepared them well for employment – and this rose to 96% for those with the gold standard and 85% for those completing the diploma.
*The research was based on a survey of 205 individuals who were contacted within 6-10 months of completing their studies.
Source: NCTJ Full report: In pdf format
