FIRST STEPS: Radio 5 Live News placements

BBC; Bridgwater; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

BBC 5 Live is offering a four-week paid work placement in their newsroom at MediaCity UK. This opportunity provides hands-on experience in news production, including training in operating and editing systems. Candidates should be passionate about news, creative, and able to work in a team. The role encourages applications from underrepresented groups to enhance diversity in their coverage.

Benefits

Up to £200 travel expenses

Qualifications

• Passionate about news and storytelling.
• Able to work to tight deadlines.
• Full of ideas for news stories.

Responsibilities

• Participate in production meetings and brainstorm ideas.
• Assist in producing programme items and stories.
• Work on live shows and support technical teams.

Skills

Communication skills

Creativity

Team player

Job description

5 LIVE NEWS: FIRST STEPS

Radio 5 Live broadcasts continuous news, sport and topical speech programming. We bring our listeners any major stories and news events as they happen, and provide analysis and discussion of issues in the news or online. Our audience relationship is at the heart of all our output, listeners interact on our topics minute by minute and we try hard to reach parts of the UK currently under served by other parts of the BBC.

WHAT'S ON OFFER?

A four week paid work placement which will give you the chance to work on a 5 Live News programme in our newsroom at MediaCity UK. You'll get hands on skills and experience and we'll train you in our operating and editing systems as well.

We will pay up to £200 of your travel expenses for your 4 week period too!

We want BBC 5 Live's output to reflect and understand the audiences we serve and the experience of people from underrepresented groups. We are therefore actively seeking individuals with skills or experience that can help contribute towards ensuring we maximise the diversity of our coverage and content.

We particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in 5Live's workforce. This includes people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

ARE YOU?

• Passionate about news and sport and the issues facing our changing world.
• Regularly reading new articles in print or online and listening to the radio or news podcasts. Maybe you're already on a media studies course or you're working in community or student radio.
• A natural team player, able to build great relationships with the people you work with.

Applications are now open!

• Please upload your CV and complete the shortquestionnaire, using the "Apply Now" button.
• The closing date is midnight on Tuesday 03rd June (assessments/interviews will take place in June/July)

What will I be doing?

During your time at BBC 5 Live, you'll get hands on experience working in a BBC Newsroom, working to a specific news programme.

You'll take part in meetings, brainstorm ideas and complete a range of duties for production teams before and during live shows.

You will be trained and given experience in a number of areas. You will help produce programme items and stories; spotting story ideas, fixing up guests, editing audio and writing scripts and briefs for presenters.

You will have a mentor, a senior member of the 5 Live team who will spend time with you every week to discuss how your placement is going as well as your future plans. They will also talk you through the BBC job application system and give you advice on writing or updating your CV.

You'll also need to be available for weekend shifts (we do our best to take into consideration personal circumstances when designing your schedule).

Note; Placements are to gain exposure/experience in production. If you want to be a presenter I'm afraid it's not for you.

Am I the right candidate?

• You need to be passionate about the news and telling stories. We want you to know about radio as well or how to use audio.
• You'll be creative, and full of ideas for news stories or story treatments for our target audience around the UK..
• You will be able to work to tight deadlines.
• You will have great communication skills and will be able to rapidly earn the trust of the presenter, producers and the programme's technical teams.

WHO CAN APPLY?

• You must be 18 years or over and available to work in Salford for 4 weeks, between September 2025 and end of April 2026.
• You must hold documentation that gives you the legal right to work in the UK between September 2025 and end of April 2026.

The scheme isn't open to those who have been on a BBC placement before or those currently working on/previously worked on a BBC contract.

About the BBC

We don't focus simply on what we do - we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you've read about our values and behaviours here .

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC - whether that's to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here .