Case studies : Production trainee: Yasmina

Yasmina undertook a BSc and an MA in Neuroscience before working for several years in child psychiatry with the NHS. While working for the health service, she became very involved in her local hospital radio station and this volunteering so captivated her interest that she returned to university in London to do an MA in Broadcast Journalism.

Prior to undertaking my MA in Broadcast Journalism I had been a volunteer with our local hospital radio station, producing and presenting shows, answering requests from patients and keeping up to date on new music and current affairs. When I decided that this might be the way forward I undertook an MA which included a two-week placement with a commercial radio station. I was also fortunate to do a year working for an online news company as a reporter following stories and producing content for online broadcasts before getting the position with the BBC.

I am currently in a training role so I move positions every four months or so, working between television, radio and multiplatform media. So far, although my title is broadcast journalist I have acted as a researcher, assistant producer, assistant script editor and broadcast assistant. The types of programmes I do are also varied having worked on programmes such as the One Show, Eastenders, Radio 2 and Newsround. One of the bonuses of my job is that no two days are ever the same with great variation in the activities I undertake and opportunities to meet and work with a huge variety of people, as you can imagine.

On a day to day basis, I use a wide array of skills - some technical, some transferable skills. I enjoy the individual aspects of my job - coming up with programme ideas, briefing presenters, operating cameras to self shoot while on location for a story and editing audio and film using technology specific to various programmes. Much of my work is also undertaken as part of a team - working with contributors and with talent, working as part of a production team or driving the filming team to locations. I like the creativity inherent in what we do and enjoy keeping up to date with news and current affairs; I couldn’t do my job without that. Being realistic, there are some less positive aspects to my job - the hours can be long and unpredictable depending on what we are working on and there are constant deadlines that have to be met - scheduled broadcasts can’t wait! That can be stressful but it’s part and parcel of this type of work and we are expected to put work first.

There are formal schemes to help people get into this kind of work but they are pretty competitive. I found my MA in Broadcast Journalism a huge help as it helped me to feel a step ahead of those who hadn’t done that kind of qualification when I started working for the BBC. I also had considerable work experience and I would recommend any work experience in the broad field of media to broaden an individual’s knowledge and increase their confidence. My final tip would be to keep on top of news and current affairs because whatever department a person up working in, you will be expected to know what’s going on in the world.