Last updated 16:01, Wednesday, 23 July 2008

SINCE October last year work experience has been the only thing on every student’s mind, myself included.

The idea of working in a professional environment gave us all chills. The fact that during that week you could say to your parents: ”I’m going to work,“ made even the most childish students feel grown up.

You couldn’t get a detention at work experience, you would just be fired. I asked to spend my work experience at the Times & Star office, in Workington.

The reason? I wanted an insight into how a newspaper was made. The only encounter I’d had with journalism was in the past, watching Spider Man films.

So, on Tuesday July 8, my work experience began.

To be honest I walked into the editorial office expecting to be asked to photocopy pages or make the editor his tea.

To my surprise after half an hour of being introduced to everyone I found myself creating headlines for articles and creating the layout for page nine!

Later that morning Stan, one of the photographers, took me to a crack house where class-A drugs had been discovered less than a week ago.

We were taking pictures of the police putting up a closure notice on the front of the house.

Then, I re-wrote two articles on the University of Cumbria for this publication, ‘Futures’. It was exciting. I had a lot of responsibility. I could delete sentences from the article, add paragraphs and even modify the headline. I also went with the photographer to Seaton Infants’ School, where we took pictures of their new climbing frame, shaped like a pirate galleon. When we returned to the office later I was shown how to enhance the photos for the paper.

By the end of the day I was shattered but very excited because my work experience had only just begun.

On Wednesday July 9, I started by finishing off page nine. Then I was given a section on page six, another on page 38 and on page 13.

I spent the rest of the morning figuring out the layout for these pages and trying very hard to think of quirky, exciting and clever headlines.

By lunch time I had rubbed off most of the letters on my keyboard with my furious typing and had failed to write even one interesting headline.

That afternoon I was asked to set out the articles on page six. By the time I left the office I was tired, but very pleased with myself. I had got through a lot of work and I felt as if I had achieved something.

Thursday was deadline day. Just past three o’clock the final version of the newspaper had to be sent off to be printed. I spent most of my morning finishing off page six.

My headlines were improving and I was getting quicker at changing font sizes and linking elements. I also made my first work-related phone call.

I felt very important as I introduced myself: ‘Hello, it’s Aaron Brown from the Times & Star, can I ask you a few questions?’

When lunchtime arrived I was relieved, though it didn’t last long I was soon back at a desk furiously typing and sending pages to the printers. Surprisingly there were a lot of elements to be corrected on the pages (adverts that were the wrong size, articles that wouldn’t fit, headlines that were the wrong size).

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the newspaper was sent and our job was done.

Working at the Times & Star has shown me how much effort and how much teamwork goes into making a newspaper: the pressure and the rewards.

I appreciate the amount of work that must go into the international daily newspapers. I would recommend work experience at the Times & Star to anyone who wants a fast, ever-changing job that is done to a strict deadline.

I have acquired various skills thanks to my work experience and don’t want to go back to school; the idea of sitting behind a desk listening to a maths teacher drone on about Pythagoras is not very inviting; no photographers; no reporters; no deadlines; no swivelling chairs and no important phone calls.