Qualifications
Publishers have told us that they prefer new entrants to have a good first degree in a traditional academic discipline. They can then either: take a pre-entry or post-entry vocational qualification, build knowledge of the industry via work experience or receive on the job training.
There are hundreds of journalism courses at colleges, universities and intensive short course providers, but there are only two accreditation programmes that identify those courses as industry recognised. This means the publishing industry considered the programme to be delivering the right skills and knowledge to work in the sector. One is run by the National Council for the Training of Journalists for newspapers and the other by the Periodicals Training Council for magazines and business media.
Other relevant qualifications are available for editorial. The Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) offers its members two sets of qualifications, one for proof-reading and one for copy-editing. The Society of Indexers offers its own training course can lead to the status of Accredited Indexer.
If you are interested in design you will need to have some kind of art and design qualification, preferably to degree level, and be able to demonstrate a portfolio of relevant work. Employers recruiting for marketing roles may look for professional qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Marketing or Institute of Direct Marketing, although this is not always considered essential.
There are an increasing number of Publishing Studies courses that cover book, journal and magazine publishing. These tend to be postgraduate qualifications, although there are a small number of foundation or undergraduate degrees. While employers do not specify these qualifications as essential, they help your application stand out and provide you with work experience and networking opportunities.
Are you looking for a particular type of course? Use our course search database on the bottom right hand side of this page.
Alternatively, you may find the following links useful:
Training & Education Useful Links
UCAS website
NCTJ Accredited Courses
PTC Accredited Courses
Chartered Institute of Marketing
Institute of Direct Marketing