This document provides information about employment opportunities and job roles in the media sector for a BTEC Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production course. It discusses different types of employment such as full-time, part-time, freelance and voluntary work. It also covers topics like shift work, permanent and temporary contracts, multiskilling, casual work, hourly paid work and piecework. The document provides guidance on finding work through careers guidance, trade fairs, trade press, networking and maintaining personal contacts. It instructs students to research a potential career path including required skills, qualifications and courses. Examples of applying for jobs and the benefits of work experience are also discussed.

1. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
Unit 7: Understanding the Creative
Media Sector
Learning outcome 4:
Know about employment opportunities
and job roles in the media sector
Name: Jack Sullivan_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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2. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
Employment opportunities and job roles in the media sector
The purpose of this workbook is to get you to understand different job roles, different
ways of working and opportunities for professional development. You will have to
explain different terms, give opinions and source relevant additional information in
order to help you comprehensively explain employment opportunities and job roles in
the media sector with reference to elucidated examples.
This first section considers different ways of working. You should use information from
the lecture, your own experiences and further research to help you answer each
question. Wherever possible, you should use specific and detailed examples. This will
help you achieve a higher grade and also give you a deeper understanding of the
subject.
Describe the following different types of employment and some of their advantages and
disadvantages:
Full time
Full time jobs want you to work for longer and more. A good thing about working full time
is you get a lot more money than working part time.
Part time
Part time jobs only want you to work for a certain amount of time. Part time jobs also
often offer less money as they are only working for part of the time.
Freelance
Freelancers have flexible hours as they get to work whenever they want.
They can also work wherever they want; they are not stuck in an environment to work in
all the time they can choose their most comfortable environment.
Voluntary
Working to gain experience so you can maybe get better jobs in the future. Voluntary
work is for free so the workers don’t get paid It is just mainly for experience.
But being a freelancer can run the risk of not being paid.
Describe shift work. What does it entail and what types of media job might require it?
Shifts are usually broken up in different timed blocks it depends what the company
requires. Newspaper editors will work in shifts, as their newspapers will have to be
finished before they are released the next day.

3. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
A permanent contract is one where:
A permanent contract is a contract without an ending date.
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of such a contract?
The employee knows that as long as they do their job up to standard, they will get a
paycheck at every month. A disadvantage of a permanent contract is that it can require a
lot of notice when a person wants to leave their job.
A temporary contract is one where:
Temporary contracts usually only last up until 6 months, sometimes a cover for another
employee.
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of such a contract?
It can look good on peoples CV’s if the person has worked in different environments for
short amounts of time on temporary contracts. A disadvantage of a temporary contract is
that, no matter how hard ad well the employee works, they will eventually come to the
end of a contract.
What is multiskilling and which skills could you combine together?
Multitasking is dealing with more than one task at a time.
What is casual work? Who does it benefit the most? What are some of the arguments
against casual work?
A casual job is a job with no guaranteed hours of work.
Explain hourly paid work. Find a job which pays by the hour to help you with your
explanation.
Workers who are paid on an hourly basis are required to be paid, at least minimum
wage.
What is Piecework? What do employers need to be careful about when employing
someone this way?
Piecework is any type of employment where the workers are paid for the piece of work
or task they do.

4. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
This section is concerned with finding work. You will have an idea of the sort of job you
might like to do in the future. Keeping a specific job role or industry in mind when
completing these questions will help you provide more detailed and focussed answers.
Starting to think about a specific area of employment at this stage will help you in later
sections of the workbook.
Why would you use careers guidance? Provide the names of at least 2 organisations
which can help people plan their careers.
There is a website called ‘Prospect.ac.uk’ and also the government runs a service
called the ‘national careers service’.
What is a trade fair?
A trade fair is when multiple people in industries get together and show off their
products.
Which trade fairs could you attend to help you with your career? How could they help
you? Be specific here to help you comprehensively explain.
I could attend ASFF which is a film festival in York. I could use other people’s ideas as
inspiration for my own.
What could some advantages and disadvantages be to using the national press to look
for work?
An advantage is that the national press often have many job adverts a disadvantage of
this is that there is lots of competition.
What trade press publications could you use to help you find work? Would this be a
better option than using the national press? Explain your answer using detailed
examples.
I would use ‘Reed’ because they always keep their website updated and if a job is
unavailable they would tell me quickly.
What would be a good way of keeping track of and in touch with your personal contacts?
How could this help you when looking for work?

5. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
You can save contacts to your phone and also social media so you are always up to
date with the job.
What is networking and how could it be useful to you?
Interacting with others to exchange information, successful networking can lead to job
opportunities.
Explain word of mouth as a way of getting work. Is this a reliable method for obtaining
work?
This is not always a reliable way of getting work because people can just make things
up about others which could be good or bad things.
This next section requires you to do further research in to your chosen career.
Creativeskillset.org is a fantastic resource which will help you learn about the
qualifications, skills and experience you need to gain to work in industry. It also gives
detailed overviews and case studies, to help you understand what each job really
involves.
It will help you find other useful sources of information from details on unions, trade
websites and publications to job adverts. You should investigate your chosen job role
or sector and sum up the skills and qualifications you need to do that job as well as
fully investigating what it involves.
What job role would you like? Explain your reasons? What kind of job is it (creative,
technical, editorial etc.)?
(http://www.creativeskillset.org is a great place to start)
I would like to be a graphic designer because I enjoy using a computer to design
different things. I enjoy creating images and logos.

6. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
What skills will you need for that job?
IT skills
Drawing skills
Creativity and imagination
Good spelling and grammar
Good understanding
Summarise what is involved when doing this job.
Graphic designers create the front cover of magazines, film cases, video game cases,
posters and lots of other things.
What qualifications are required for that job?
Having a degree in graphic design or other related art based courses which shows you
have understanding of the course.
Find at least 2 courses you could do to help you get in to the industry. You should state
the name of the course, the level of qualification (level 2, level 3, Degree etc.), the
institution that you would attend and their entry requirements)
Graphic design level 3 and creative media level 3.
Where could you find out more information? (Investigate at least 2 other sources of
information and give a brief summary of why this resource is useful)

7. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
Creative skill set have a wide range of jobs and information of the skills needed for
these jobs.
This section requires you to do some job hunting, so you can see what is required
from the perspective of employers in the industry. You should think about the
different places you could look for work. It is good to see what jobs are available,
what they pay, and what you need to do to get them.
Use at least 2 different sources to find a job that you would like to do.
Job: (paste brief description of job here)
Job Graphic Design
Source:
Summarise the skills required:
5 GCSE’s at grade A* to C
Is this job full time/part time/freelance?
Full time
What do you need to do to apply?
You can apply on the website.
Job: (paste brief description of job here)
Source:
Summarise the skills required:

8. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
Is this job full time/part time/freelance?
What do you need to do to apply?
Work experience can be a good way to test out working in industry and can be a way
to get a foot in the door. If you perform well during your work experience or
internship, you will put yourself in a good position if a bigger role becomes available.
There are lots of media organisations that have work experience and intern
programs as well as other companies who specialise in getting placements for their
clients. Be specific when answering the questions below. Give website addresses
and discuss what you have found. The more detail, the better your grade.
Work experience:
What are some of the benefits of work experience?
You can learn more about the job you want to do and gain some experience on it.
Where could you look for work experience?
You can look in newspapers and online.
Where would you like to do work experience? How would you go about applying?
As a graphics designer. You can look for different work online and apply for different
preferred jobs.
As well as looking at your industry skills, employers want people who are able to
work efficiently and communicate effectively. In this section, you should evaluate
your own functional skills level and consider what action, if any, you need to take to
improve your skills in this area.
What grades do employers normally like to see people have for GCSE Maths and English?
They normally like to see them to have A* - C in maths and English.
Why is it important to have good functional skills?

9. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
It is important because to get most jobs the requirements are to have A* to C in English and
maths.
Are there any areas of Maths, English or basic I.T skills that you need to work on?
I still need to work on my maths as I haven’t passed it yet. I passed English and I.T at school in
my GCSE’s.
This final section requires you to think about your own skills for employment. You will
be assessed on this as you progress throughout the course. This helps formalise
your ideas on these key skills. Some questions are very similar to those you might
see on a detailed job application or are questions you may be asked in an interview.
Thinking of examples of when you have used these key skills before an interview is a
good way to prepare.
How reliable, committed and efficient are you? Give examples when you have
demonstrated some of these qualities. Do you need to improve any of these areas?
I am reliable as I do what I am told to do and most of the time my work is done to a
good level and is in on time.
Attendance and punctuality are very important. What was your attendance and
punctuality like at school? If your figures were good, how will you maintain them? If your
figures need to improve, what steps do you need to take to improve those figures? Be
specific in your answers.
My attendance and punctuality were very good at school, as I turned up on time
everyday. I walked to school and set off at the same time every morning.
How important do you think self presentation is during an interview?
I think self-presentation is very important as it gives the interviewer a good first
impression on the interviewee.
Can you think of a time when you contributed to a group project? What was the project?
What role did you take and how successful do you think you were?
In media last year we had to create an advert for coca cola and as a group we had to
voice record the advert as it was a radio advert. We then edited it individually and made
it into our own product.
Give an example of when you have had to manage your time carefully and how you
went about it?

10. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
I had to manage my time carefully when doing my GCSE English exam as for each
question so I finished it all in time for the end of the exam.
Give an example of when you had to take personal responsibility for something. What
was the scenario and what was the outcome?
I have to take personal responsibility of babysitting my sister when my mum isn’t in, I
give her dinner and make sure she is in bed on time.