Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) communication students will be attached to Radio Africa Group, giving them opportunity for newspaper, radio and television production.
Seasoned journalists with the media house will also mentor the learners within the university, Vice Chancellor Leila Abubakar, Radio Africa COO Agnes Kayekye, and head of content Paul Ilado agreed last week.
“This interaction is a good starting point. We will be happy to have some renowned media personalities come and mentor our students and provide attachment positions that will give a platform for our students to learn,” Prof Abubakar said.
Media and communication students have been grappling to secure attachment opportunities, forcing some to defer their studies.
To mitigate the situation, the Media Council of Kenya has joined hands with media owners to accept journalism and media students into their newsrooms for industry experience before they graduate.
Among other challenges, media owners have found it difficult to accommodate the thousands of students seeking attachment opportunities, forcing many students to go through the back door to gain a toe-hold into these companies.
The media owners are grappling to pay the trainees and cover their insurance costs, something that has seen the trainers change tack by meeting the companies midway in a form of cost-share at a time revenues have been dwindling due to cut-throat competition.
Lacklustre innovation has made things worse for newsrooms that have stuck to legacy media and traditional products when media content consumption keeps changing. Because the media firms have failed to innovate, critics have said, their days are numbered at a time social media is becoming a bigger threat.
Apart from the MCK interventions, a number of media houses have designed apprenticeships that pick a few learners through rigorous interviews. One of the notable trainings is Nation Media Group’s (NMG’s) Media Lab that picks up final year students as trainees from east Africa.
The Standard Group designed a similar in-house training, but it is not known whether it is still admitting students or not.
Since the University of Nairobi discontinued its fiercely popular postgraduate diploma in journalism course at the School of Journalism, there have been concerns about the quality of graduates joining the industry.
A few years ago, Aga Khan University launched a media course at master’s level, focusing on digital journalism and attracted many students, what with its rich collection of good teachers, including former top editors such as Joseph Odindo who was editorial director at NMG.
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