I'd also recommend the BBC's traineeship schemes which are advertised in their jobs section. That was my big break into broadcasting. They're highly competitive but it was the work experience I gained beforehand that helped enormously.

I went for a two-month internship, with bursary, while studying Journalism. It's run by The Creative Collective (www.thecreativecollective.com) and was a fantastic opportunity. I was placed with a trade magazine called Supply Management, and others were at The Times, Big Issue, Manchester Evening News.... We were given mentors who come from all media backgrounds, and were even given a tour of the BBC London studio while they prepared the 6 o'clock news. It was great to have on the CV and showed prospective employers I was serious about working in media. To be honest, my big break was really down to working for a newspaper (for expenses) during every half term I had at university. It paid off because I'd proved myself in that time, and there was a job waiting for me at the end.

I'm currently in my final year of university studying tv production. Unfortunately i haven't had much in terms of work experience with particulary established companies, but we do a lot of our own studio programmes and VTs within our uni tv studio, was just looking for some advice, how do you go about looking for tv jobs? and when would be the best time to start looking, as i finish uni in may, so was thinking about approaching companies just after the new year?

I got my break through the Film and Television Freelance Training scheme (or ft2 for shorthand!). I managed to get on their 18 month researcher training programme straight from uni after doing a lot of student telly (but not much else, to be honest!). It was a fantastic scheme, I worked full time at a few different companies (with short courses here and there) and was treated as a trainee researcher throughout, as well as having to complete an NVQ and make two short films in my spare time!

Unfortunately ft2 lost their funding for the researcher training scheme for their training scheme for more technical apprenticeships are still happening and they've recently just recruited for their production assistant scheme. I think Top TV (?) have won the funding for researcher training now, and if it's as good as the ft2 scheme they should be well prepared for tv life!

I wrote off to about 30 different TV companies before I was offered a summer of work experience with Sky Movies. It was a great introduction to the world of Sky and programme making in particular. My work experience placement was extended and I had the opportunity to help out in LA for the Oscars that we covered from the Four Seasons Hotel.

I started at Endemol from a Creative internship we do each year. It's a really good way to start in the industry - working on ideas from the start, pitching to execs in the company etc. We run the scheme every year at around July/August.