In this month’s What’s up student column, Nejc Molan, a student of journalism and a sports journalist for the Slovenian Press Agency, shares his views and experiences on how young sports journalists learn more with on-field practical work than theoretical.

Even though I haven’t been working in sports journalism for long, I have been part of the Slovenian Press Agency for about three years now, the main thing I learned is that young, up-and-coming journalists learn best when being sent to events, games, press conferences, etc. Talking with other young sports reporters from around the world I’ve seen it works for them as well, but in this column, I would like to share some of my experiences.

This apparent preference of journalism students learning practical work rather than theory is already clearly drawn at our faculty. With the exception of the first year, journalism students quickly get to work writing different articles, getting sent to some events, and producing radio and TV programmes, while they are also being encouraged to find a student job in a newsroom alongside their studies. Things like that were the best part of my time at the faculty and have shown me what journalism is about. This continued at my first job and later at the press agency. While getting told what to do is a good first step, of course, the first time you must cover an event by yourself proves if you are able to do this job or not. For the first time you are alone, you have to find your way around and find the people with who you will talk with.

However, it looks like I am not the only one who thinks this is the best way to learn. AIPS and FISU have been doing Young Reporter programmes for years now, and I have been lucky enough to be selected to be a part of two of them. And while I did already cover events for STA, these two programmes helped me evolve into a journalist I am today. The first programme was in Innsbruck in 2023 at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships. Alongside five fellow young reporters from around the world during one week of competition, we had lectures about sports journalism, were reporting and writing articles for the AIPS website, doing interviews, but most importantly we learnt how to find a great story about the athletes or competition and not only focus about the results.

And while Innsbruck only covered a one sport event, in Torino 2025 I was part of six aspiring young reporters to cover the FISU World University Games Winter. In the two weeks of covering the event we’ve written event recaps, and feature stories and did TV interviews with the student-athletes. And for many doing these types of programmes this is their first time covering such a large multi-sport event. It’s like being at the mini-Olympics, where you have to find your way around different venues and work under tight deadlines. Although this wasn’t my first experience covering multi-sport events, it gave me an enormous amount of insight, skills, and connections to enhance my sports journalist career.

And to anyone reading this, practical learning and experience things on your own doesn’t only apply to sports reporting, but pretty much to everything.  So, the next time you get a job opportunity, an internship or whatever kind of programme to increase your knowledge and skills, don’t hesitate to go. Remember, you will learn how to swim best when you are thrown in the water.

This What's up column is written by Nejc Molan, a 25-year-old student of journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana and currently a sports journalist for the Slovenian Press Agency.