David Beck moved to Dunedin for the student lifestyle after completing the first year of a commerce degree in Wellington.

“I think coming to Dunedin was the best move I ever made," he says. 

David researched programmes online and found the National Diploma in Journalism (Multimedia) (Level 5)* had a very good job success rate.

“I could see on the website how many students had got jobs fairly quickly, and out of the ten students in my class three of us got jobs before we even finished the Diploma.”

David says having a small class allowed for great group discussions and one-on-one tuition.

“Everyone got along really well and there was always plenty of time to talk to the tutor. I did commerce at university where I was one of two hundred students in the lecture theatre, and you couldn’t get a word in. It was so much better than that.” 

David says the Diploma programme really prepared him for a job as a newspaper reporter, covering a surprisingly wide range of topics from Media Law to Photography.

“Photography is half my job now as a reporter, I take all my own photos for my newspaper stories. There’s also four weeks of work experience and that was great value. In fact, it was when I was on work experience I was offered my first job.”

*The National Diploma in Journalism (Multimedia) (Level 5) used to be offered at Aoraki Polytechnic but moved to Otago Polytechnic in 2015.