If you're looking for a career in national radio broadcasting, then you should be looking into the newly-launched BBC apprenticeship programme - it's a two-year programme specifically for people without degrees.
Believed to be the first of its kind, the BBC Radio Journalism Apprenticeship will be focussing on speech radio, primarily for the BBC World Service and Radio 4.
You'd be studying at London's Lambeth College for two years, while working with the London programme teams of the BBC's radio production department.
What you'll be learning there is pretty well every aspect of radio journalism, including how to write accurate and balanced reports, together with specific writing techniques for radio, social media and the internet.
The apprenticeship harks back to the days when passion and potential could actually get you a job in BBC Local Radio more than a university degree could. OK, so we're talking about the 1970's here, but those really were the days when you could do a few stints on hospital radio, make up a cassette of your best bits and try and blag your way into working for a local station. And a lot of the time, that method worked.
Until the launch of the BBC Radio Journalism Apprenticeship, though, the only way to get into the Beeb's hallowed radiophonic halls was by spending three years chasing an appropriate degree ... being terribly, terribly lucky ... or having some strings pulled for you.
The BBC's Acting Controller of Radio and Music Production, Ruth Gardiner, says: “We want to give people who do not have graduate experience, but who listen to some of our programmes and who have a genuine interest in how such programmes are made, the opportunity to join the department.
“Apprenticeships are important because they help attract recruits from a wide range of backgrounds by offering the opportunity to earn while learning.”
At the end of your apprenticeship, you'll have the skills to gain yourself an Advanced Apprenticeship in Journalism, a programme developed in conjunction with the National Council for the Training of Journalists.
And when you think of what's being produced and broadcast these days by university graduates, what media critic Queenie Trout says could just resonate with you: “Maybe with all the front line cost cutting on BBC Local Radio its time to open the doors again to those who want to make audio programming ‘for the love of’ rather than the pay packet. Let’s face it if utterly talentless people can be made famous by TOWIE, think of the talent that could be found via a voluntary scheme to assist in the poor money strapped regions of radio.”
And if it does resonate with you, then you really should be applying for the BBC Radio Journalism Apprenticeship - but you'd better hurry, because at the moment, there are only six placements on offer.
