Unit overview: Placement
Ask any journalist how to get into journalism and sooner, rather than later, they will utter the magic words — ‘work experience’.
Of course, employers want well qualified people with good degrees, and professional qualifications.
But they also want to see a healthy batch of relevant work experience on an applicant’s CV.
That’s where our Placement unit comes in, providing students with the opportunity to get hands on experience with media employers at home and abroad.
Getting real life experience of the real working environment puts our students one step ahead of the rest in the jobs market.
Some students return from placement with the offer of a job.
For example, a third year student completed his placement with The News in Portsmouth last summer. He did so well that he got invited back for paid work each week during his final year and then landed a trainee reporter’s job at one of its district offices.
At the very least, students get great experience and a first class reference or placement report which helps with future applications.
Our students usually complete placements in the summer break between the end of their second year and the beginning of their third year.
Locations include national, regional and local newspapers, specialist magazines, online publications, radio and television stations and public relations and digital marketing companies.
Some students get placements with media employers overseas.
Think of a publication you have read, heard of or seen, and it’s very likely one of our students has been there.
The Placement unit requires students to gain at least 10 days work experience. But most students do many more.
Some build long term relationships with one publication while others work with a variety of employers, often testing different types of journalism and PR to find out where they fit in.
We give students plenty of advice and guidance, and those all-important contacts, to help ensure they get the right experience for them.
There are individual tutorials, group meetings and lots of support on our virtual learning site Moodle.
After placement, the students have a thorough debrief with me and then produce a report of their experiences.
It evaluates the placement provider’s role in its industry and the students assess their own personal and professional development on placement.
Placement gives students a unique opportunity to put into practice, in the workplace, all the knowledge and skills they have acquired during their first two years at university.
It’s a great opportunity to find out which direction they would like their career to take, what they currently do well and what they need to improve.
Employers are nearly always full of praise for our students, noting their enthusiasm and commitment and often stating they are the best work experience trainees they have had.
But I’ll leave the final word to a recent graduate:
“Placement has been crucial in helping me decide which direction to take when I leave university. It’s a great opportunity to put into practice everything I have learned at Portsmouth. It’s been one of the most useful units on the course in terms of life after graduation.”
