You can study for a university qualification before looking for work. Subjects like English, journalism or media and communication studies may give you an advantage, though most subjects will be acceptable.

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.

An excellent grasp of English language will be essential for all jobs.

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

You can apply to do a Publishing Professional Level 4 Higher Apprenticeship with a company to get into this role.

This typically takes around 2 years to complete and is a mix of workplace training and study.

Entry requirements

Employers will set their own entry requirements.

You could work in a publishing office or a company's communications department, as an admin assistant or copywriter, and work your way up through in-house training and promotion.

You'll find it useful when applying for jobs to have done some paid or unpaid work experience in publishing, for example on behalf of a charity.

You could take a proofreading or editing course, like the ones offered by  The Publishing Training Centre or the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading.

You'll need:

• knowledge of English language
• knowledge of media production and communication
• excellent written communication skills
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• excellent verbal communication skills
• the ability to work well with others
• to be flexible and open to change
• the ability to organise your time and workload
• to be able to use a computer and the main software packages confidently

As an editorial assistant, you could:

• be a point of contact for authors for routine enquiries
• update databases, spreadsheets and other records
• read documents and make corrections
• deal with rights and permissions
• act as a personal assistant to commissioning editors
• work with images and page layout software
• proof and edit online text, including social media content
• compile and send out newsletters
• provide admin support at all stages of publishing

You could work in an office or from home.