Walton post 16 student, Evie-Grace Cox, recently completed a Springpod virtual work experience course in journalism. Here, she reviews her experience and how it has helped her take one step closer to fulfilling her dream of working in the media.
Evie’s review
Over half-term, I took part in a Springpod virtual work experience course for journalism and I found it so good I thought I would take the opportunity to share my experience. I chose to take part in this course as journalism and media is a career path that has always been intriguing to me and something that I hope to go into as I carry on with my education.
The program ran over two weeks and was jam-packed full of information about each sector of journalism, webinars, and activities to give aspiring journalists, like myself, an insight into the industry. There were nine modules within the course, five based on the different areas of journalism such as: broadcast, freelance, print, and photojournalism as well as news editing and production. The other four modules were based on pathways and next steps. The modules were really useful in the sense that they allowed me to develop my knowledge and learn new skills that are beneficial within the industry.
The webinars gave all participants the chance to meet professional journalists and hear them talk about their careers and how they all got to the places they are today. We were even given the opportunity to ask them our own questions. This part of the course was one of my favourite parts because it was so interesting to hear how unique each experience into the industry can be. We got to hear from writers from BBC radio, The Times, and many other companies.
Activities on the course varied for each module. The ‘Print Journalism’ module required us to write a short article on the effects of climate change and the small changes individuals can make to live a cleaner life. In contrast to that in the ‘News Copy Editing/Production’ module, it required us to organise a schedule for the news channel. The versatility of these activities gave a glimpse into the sort of things journalism entails and allowed us to find a section of journalism we’re most fond of.
I am really happy I took part in the course and would certainly recommend it to anyone who is looking into a career in journalism in the future! It gave me the opportunity to widen my knowledge and strengthen my skill base. It also gave me a stronger sense of confidence in my choice to go on to study either journalism or media and communications at university and then embark in a career in this industry.
