How to become
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
You'll usually need:
- 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English
- 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree
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Apprenticeship
You can apply to do a Publishing Professional Level 4 Higher Apprenticeship to get into this role.
This typically takes around 2 years to complete and is a mix of workplace training and classroom study.
Entry requirements
Employers will set their own entry requirements.
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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.
Other Routes
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.
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Professional and industry bodies
You may find it useful to join organisations like the the Publishers Association and Professional Publishers Association for professional recognition, training opportunities and to make industry contacts.
Further information
You can find out more about becoming an editorial assistant from the:
You can also get information on other publishing and creative careers from Discover Creative Careers.