Editorial assistant

Entry Requirements:

You can get into this job through:

• a university course
• an apprenticeship
• working towards this role
• specialist training courses with professional bodies

University

Subjects like English, journalism or media studies are often preferred.

If you want to specialise in a particular field of publishing, you may need a degree that's closely related to it, for example physics or maths for a scientific journal.

Entry requirements:

• 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English
• 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree

Entry requirements:

Apprenticeship

You can apply to do an apprenticeship to get into this role, such as:

• Publishing Assistant Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship
• Publishing Professional Level 4 Higher Apprenticeship

These typically take around 2 years to complete and are a mix of workplace training and off-the-job study.

Entry requirements:

• 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship
• 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) and A levels, or equivalent, for a higher or degree apprenticeship

Work

You could work in a publishing office or a company's communications department as a general assistant and work your way up through in-house training and promotion.

Volunteering

You'll find it useful when applying for jobs, to have done some paid or unpaid work experience in publishing.

OtherRoutes

You could take a proofreading or editing course, like the ones offered by the The Publishing Training Centre or the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading .

Required Skills:

Digital skills : to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

Skills:

• knowledge of English language
• knowledge of media production and communication
• the ability to read English
• excellent verbal communication skills
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• excellent written communication skills
• the ability to work well with others
• to be flexible and open to change
• the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
• the ability to use your initiative
• thinking and reasoning skills
• active listening skills
• the ability to think clearly using logic and reasoning
• the ability to organise your time and workload
• knowledge of teaching and the ability to design courses
• administration skills
• business management skills
• concentration skills
• a good memory
• the ability to work well with your hands

What you'll do:

Editorial assistants provide support at all stages of the publication process for books, journals, magazines and online content.

In this role you could:

• be a point of contact for authors
• keep databases, spreadsheets and other records up to date
• read documents and make corrections
• deal with rights and permissions
• act as personal assistant to commissioning editors
• work with images and page layout software
• proof and edit online text, including social media content
• compile and send out newsletters using design and distribution software
• edit text and images using a content management system (CMS)
• edit text on apps

Location : You could work in an office or from home.

Salary:

Starter : £18,000
Experienced : £28,000

These figures are a guide

Working hours:

37 - 39 hours a week

Working Pattern is evenings occasionally

Career Path:

With experience you could move into more senior editorial roles, or work on a freelance basis.