Runners are questioning whether you need a degree to work in TV. One of our Twitter followers asked us this:

“is it essential to have a degree to be able to get your foot in the door?”

Absolutely not. In my opinion, you do no need a degree to work in TV. An inquisitive mind, the ability to self-manage and work independently yet know the boundaries of your skills are what’s more important to starting a career in media. You need a desire to learn. You need to be able to watch and learn from others.

Benefits of a Degree

The process of studying for a degree will help you develop research and writing skills. It will obviously increase your knowledge in your chosen subject. You’ll also be working more independently on a degree than when you studied for A Levels. However, a Degree in itself is not essential, and having a ‘media’ degree is definitely not. Of course it will help, but you’ll be more attractive to employers if you’ve studied another subject as well, be it history, politics, English or geography.

Ideally go for a combined degree course, where you’re learning production skills but also a more academic subject as well. That gives you the best of both worlds!

Internship Insider

One way of building the experience is to take an internship. If you want to make this a success, check out my book on how to get the most out of giving up your time and energy for free.

It’s available on Amazon, read it now on Kindle.

 


Gavin Ricketts is a Producer/Director with over twenty year's experience. His courses on finding work in the creative industries has helped hundreds of Film and TV Crew win more work.


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