PMA Media Training experimented by taking a teenager on its nine-week postgraduate diploma in multimedia magazine journalism this winter – and the performance of Katie Smith from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, convinced the company that post-A level students with the same application and determination can have the same success.
(Picture attached: Katie Smith with Terry Mansfield, CBE, formerly CEO and President of The National Magazine Company, owned by The Hearst Corporation.)
Katie, 19, passed the course in March 2012 and now works as a reporter for just-style.com, a website for the fashion industry worldwide.
Her achievement has prompted the company to launch a multimedia magazine journalism diploma, which starts in October, for those who have completed A-levels but don’t want or can’t afford to go to university.
"I was slightly sceptical whether Katie would handle the pressure but she passed with flying colours," PMA chairman Keith Elliott said. “It’s convinced me that you don’t need a degree to do well in journalism.
“Schools were coming to us, asking if we ran a post A-level course. So we phoned the big publishers and asked if they would hire someone straight out of school with our diploma. They all said yes – so it's going ahead.”
Katie said: “I definitely made the right decision not to go to university because I have no debt, I haven't wasted three or four years and I have a job that I love.
“I have gained so much confidence and even shocked myself at how I managed to cope under pressure.”
The 12-week diploma course, for which there are just 12 places, sees students learning everything from tackling a press release to shooting and editing their own video. They also produce their own magazine and website. "Our aim is to give them all the core skills they need for a first job in journalism," Keith said. “This course is not about lectures: it’s all focused on practical skills.”
The course will take place at PMA's Centre for Media Excellence in Camden Town, London, and demands full-time attendance. "Those we choose will work Saturdays and Sundays too, because there are so many things to cover," Keith said. "Many of those who have taken our nine-week course have said it’s far tougher than university!"
Those chosen for the course will be taught by full-time journalists, not teachers or those who have retired from the profession. "We think it’s absolutely vital that they learn what editors want in tomorrow's journalist," Keith said.
Click here to find out more about the course.
About PMA Media Training
PMA says: “PMA Media Training trains journalists working on most of the country's magazines and websites. Its nine-week postgraduate course has been running for 24 years and is one of the "blue-chip" courses approved by the Periodicals Training Council, the governing body for the magazine industry. It is seen as the fastest way to get a job within the industry and many of the country's leading journalists have entered journalism through this course.”
