Student work experience guidelines

The NUJ recognises that students can benefit hugely from well-structured work experience placements that provide an opportunity to practise their newly-learned skills, to learn new skills and to experience journalism in a practical, rather than theoretical, environment.
The NUJ believes that students get the best out work experience by being given a mix of roles and responsibilities, working on a range of jobs, for example from court, political and news reporting, through features to subbing or broadcast editing. They also benefit from a mix of shadowing more experienced journalists, working alongside them and being given responsibilities to work alone but with their work supervised.
The NUJ recognises that employers offering this kind of structured work experience are providing a valuable service, which carries with it its own costs in term of management and staff time, plus other resources, such as legitimate expenses. The NUJ welcomes employers that provide good-quality work experience placements for journalism students.

The Law
HM Customs and Revenue insists that all work experience placements are covered by the minimum wage regulations. Only students on work placements that are endorsed by their university or college as being beneficial to the coursework are exempt from the minimum wage. Such placements may be up to one year. Employers offerings such placements, even for much shorter periods, require a letter from the student’s college confirming that the work placement is of benefit to the student.
All other work experience placement are covered by the minimum wage – even employers offering unemployed workers work experience to help them improve their CVs must pay the minimum wage for that worker’s age.
NUJ Minimum standards
1. Work placements should be for a minimum of two weeks. In exceptional circumstances, when the student is moving between a number of placements, one week may be sufficient.
2. Unpaid work placements should normally be for no more than four weeks. Paid work placements may be for six weeks, or longer if part of a sandwich course.
3. The firm offering the placement should identify a responsible individual to whom the student reports and feeds back. That person should be readily available or available at regular and known times. That person should produce a brief report at the end of the placement covering the experience gained, work done and standards achieved. An alternative or additional sources of support should be identified and communicated to the student should the person given responsibility not be available at any time.
4. Expectations of what the student will be able to do should not be set too high and some flexibility should be allowed. Different students, at different stages of their course, will have different ability levels. At all times, students should be carefully supervised. The work placement should be planned to ensure the student experiences a wide range of activities with a mix of observing, working with a staff member and working alone.
5. Students are not fully-trained journalists and should not be expected to carry out duties that put them in danger and at risk to their health and safety, such as door-stepping or going undercover when there is a risk of violence.
6. Students must not be asked, or expected, to act in any manner that may cause a breach of the NUJ’s code of professional conduct or the relevant industry code, such as those of the Press Complaints Commission or OfCom.
7. Students should be coached in a positive and constructive manner. They will learn better from their mistakes if they are shown by example the right way of doing things.
8. Part of the work experience is to be part of the editorial team. Students should be encouraged to join in all the editorial team’s activities, including, where possible, social and other outside work activities.
9. Regardless of payment, students on work placements should be able to claim reasonable expenses. The process for claiming expenses should be explained clearly. Students should not be out of pocket. If necessary employers should provide an advance on expenses.
10. Before the start of the placement these details, plus any other administrative matters, such as normal hours of work, shift patterns, security passes or other employment issues, should be put in writing to the student and his/her course tutor, where appropriate.

Best practice
1. Students on work placements should be paid at least the minimum wage or an appropriately higher rate in high-cost areas.
2. Where no wage payment is made, students should be paid at the standard lineage/word/reproduction rates for any articles/photos printed or for any material broadcast.
3. When a student’s work is published or broadcast they should get an appropriate byline or other credit.

Unacceptable practice
1. It is unacceptable for students on unpaid work placements to be used to fill gaps in staffing or to replace freelance cover.
2. It is unacceptable for students to get little or no journalistic practice and simply to be treated as an office junior, running errands and fetching and carrying for others.

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Date added: 2006-08-18
Last modified: Friday, August 18, 2006
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