BBC Production Trainee Scheme

[D.H]

Are you thinking about a career in Broadcasting?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/jobs/pts/index.shtml

The Production Trainee Scheme develops the programme makers of the future. It gives creative people the opportunity to be trained ‘on the job’ at the BBC.

We aim to recruit fresh thinkers – people with real talent and creativity, who can look at things from a different angle.

We offer trainees a mixture of training and work placements, as well as mentoring by a senior BBC manager. We want trainees to be able to tell a great story and have the skills they need to turn creative ideas into reality.

[jamiemcivor]

Not that I'm trying to put anybody off applying, but this is a highly competitive scheme which is aimed at high fliers who've already demonstrated a significant degree of interest in the media - not wanabes or people who just fancy working in telly.

The likelihood is that anyone accepted onto this scheme will already have a degree and some experience in the national media. The job spec is deliberately aimed at a lower level in order to attract a wider range of applicants and, of course, there's never any harm in applying and an exceptional individual may well succeed.

A good way to get experience is the BBC Step Up project which is deliberately designed to help give people the practical experience to understand what working in broadcasting actually involves and perhaps help them to get jobs in the fullness of time. Some of my colleagues acted as mentors on this unpaid course which ran over the past few months and we've been showing some of the best films this week - you may have seen Kenny M's on Monday.

There's a myth in Campbeltown that I walked straight from school to the Courier and, get this, straight from the Courier to a senior job at BBC Scotland. Of course, it wasn't like that. Before uni I got an amazing break - the chance to go to the Edinburgh TV Festival for Ch4 and front two films. When I was at uni I did a lot of freelance work and paid and unpaid placements at both BBC Scotland and STV, learnt to be a broadcaster by doing hospital radio (taught by some brilliant people who'd started there themselves) and then did a postgrad in journalism. I took the job at the Courier after uni because I wanted to come home for a bit to clear my student debts and left the moment the right chance came up. (Though I was careful never to say that at the time!!). My first full-time BBC job was actually my third in the national media.

National broadcasting is an extremely competitive industry - both to get into in the first place and then to make a career in. But it can be done if you're really prepared to work at it and if anyone's after career advice or tips please drop me a line.

[jamiemcivor]

Anybody interested in a career in telly may find this link useful. It's the Biographies section of the BBC website which tells you a bit about a number of senior or prominent BBC staff (myself included) and some of the celebs too. In most cases, it says something about their education or prior experience.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biogra ... ex_m.shtml