SECTOR 4 they want to study, “and then depending on management and their budget, they can take you on”. Some media organisations also take advantage of regional opportunities to send their reporters for training, including events such as Highway Africa, to which both The Post and ZNBC sent journalists in 2013. While there are a number of avenues for accessing training facilities and programmes in Zambia, there is a need to improve the quality of these programmes, and that of the students who emerge from tertiary institutions. The training policies of media institutions are general, and lack a systematic approach for identifying skills shortages. There is limited short- and long-term planning by media houses to ensure that training is provided in areas required for sustainable growth. Additionally, academic institutions that provide degree, diploma and certificate programmes in media studies are not doing enough to prepare their students for the media environments in which they will work. “Many times, you find that these students have not had an opportunity to do practical work; so when they are released into the industry, they have no idea whatsoever. Their writing skills are bad, and this creates problems for both the editors and the graduates themselves.” One panellist questioned students’ level of commitment to the media profession, noting that, “a lot of kids these days don’t know what they want to do with their life, and haven’t had career counsellors. So they get to Grade 12, and then ask ‘with these grades, what can I do?’ So there’s no commitment.” “You have journalists who don’t read. How can you have a journalist who isn’t up-to-date with current affairs? One even wonders how they got entry into university. Our entrance requirements into university are a problem.” Students lack “the basics of analysing” and the capacity to “think outside the box”. 70 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZAMBIA 2013