It’s never too early to get journalistic experience, The Times writer Ben Machell said on News Academy visits to his old schools in Leeds.

I recently travelled up to Leeds to give News Academy talks at two of my old schools. The first took me to Allerton Grange high school, where I had previously given a News Academy talk, while the second took place at The Grammar School at Leeds. At each school, I was greeted by around 30 pupils aged between 14-18, and all keen to hear more about careers in journalism.

When addressing such groups, I try and briefly put myself and my role into a bit of context, so I began by explaining that my job is to write features, interview celebrities and occasionally come up with columns or halfway amusing bits and bobs for the newspaper. But beyond that, the main thing I try and impress is that the great thing about journalism is that, unlike most other careers, it’s perfectly possible for a teenager to start using their initiative and get started now, by targeting and then contacting local publications of websites in order to pitch ideas and get writing. The number of young people who wait until they’ve finished university before they start thinking about getting real experience in the field always surprises me – why not get cracking at 16?

Both sets of pupils were, I think, quite excited by this possibility, and had plenty of questions as to the best way of getting started. I told them to do some detective work, find out the names and contact details of the editors of whichever publications they fancied writing for, and then to demonstrate that they could generate sensible, original ideas that they could then deliver, whether it’s for a local free sheet newsletter or special interest website or wherever else. The more experience they get and more contacts they make, I explained, the sooner they will start thinking and acting like journalists, regardless of how old they might be. Quite a few pupils were keen to know whether they had to be good at English or do an English Language A-level, and I tried to explain that while being good at English certainly doesn’t hurt, not enjoying the subject at school should in no way put them off the idea of being a writer, as there are plenty of great journalists who’d probably fail their English exams today.

There were also the usual questions about celebrities: Q. Who was the most horrible celebrity you’ve ever interviewed? (A: They’re all actually fairly professional). Q: Do celebrities ever not really want to talk to you? (A: Celebrities never really want to talk to me). Someone asked what the pay was like – someone always asks what the pay is like, which I guess is a very good question – and I let them know that if they were interested in earning a lot of money, they might want to think about other careers, or failing that, becoming an editor!