Any journalists here who could answer this for me?

[Pantheon]

I worked in journalism for a while but never got NCTJ accredited/couldn't afford the MA. I received some on-the-job training and wrote news stories, features etc. I've been off work raising children for a few years, and now wondering whether it would be worth investing in the proper training. Essentially, would it be worth the investment, in your opinion? Or would I be better off looking at a different career?

Not a journalist but sounds like it's increasingly competitive and badly paid. Not a great combo! This from the Telegraph 'jobs that are doomed 2025'

Sorry forgot to attach screenshot

Ex-journalist here. I wouldn’t recommend trying to get into the industry now, and I especially wouldn’t waste money on training.

The good news is that you’ll have loads of transferable skills that you could use to move into other fields like comms, marketing or PR. Might be worth looking at the civil service, which is where I work - you could look at comms roles, or at user-centred design roles like content design or user research (I work in one of these fields).

Thanks both. Those are the fears I had re the industry and jobs. Will look into those ideas @midnightblackcat thanks.

Former journalist here. Do LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE. The pay is plummeting and it’s very hard to find stable jobs, most desk journalists are now churning out clickbait for 22k a year. The qualification isn’t important either - if you want to return to study I’d choose something that has more chance of leading to a job or is more traditionally academic. I dropped out of my journalism degree in the first year but honestly even if I’d finished it I wouldn’t wipe my bum with it.

Regarding user-centred design, many people go into these roles with transferrable skills having had other careers first.

I recommend checking out the Content Design London website and blog for more about that field.

Trade journalist here, I wouldn't worry about qualification. If you do want to go back into journalism or Comms you're probably best off planning a freelance route and basing it on whatever specialist knowledge or perspective you can bring. I commission people based on their writing ability and expertise, rather than qualifications. As others said, far more lucrative to do freelance /contract comms work for a company than a publisher- we aim to pay freelancers fairly but it's not vast sums.

If you have experience, you don’t need a qualification. 20 years ago, it might possibly have been worth doing one of the better post grad courses as a returner because it was a great way to network your way into a job or freelance work but not any more. The jobs aren’t there and what work there is is poorly paid. I agree with PPs, I would look for other careers that use the same skills.

Ex journalist. My degree changed from being accredited halfway through and it never impacted me getting jobs at top newspapers across the world. However, I don't do anything close to journalism now as the pay and hours were so poor.