This was one of the topics of conversation at a meeting I had with Professor Jason Whittaker from University College Falmouth today – and an interesting conversation it was.

How to turn the journalists of tomorrow, our last bastion of editorial Hope, into entrepreneurs – who are ready, willing and able to handle the evolving challenges facing contemporary (digitised) journalism and editing in the UK.

A few areas of interest came up, namely:

* How can trainee journalists get incentivised to embrace digital journalism when it’s often an add-on to their newsroom tasks, rather than an integral, recognised, and ‘serious’ part of their journalistic daily duties in British newsrooms?

* How can experienced journalists and editors get engaged with digital mediums, when many are seemingly afraid of change?

* How can journalists – newly-qualified and experienced alike – get motivated with an entrepreneurial mindset to succeed and thrive?

There are some answers here, from an excellent blog post from Alfred Hermida at REPORTR.NET – but be aware, Alfred is using dangerous words like ‘innovation’ and ‘digital mindset’ alongside the words ‘journalists’ and media’ in his blog. I love it.

My suggestions to Jason today on this subject? Well, they included:

* Get students blogging as early as possible, and encourage them to blog around niche topics they are passionate, knowledgeable and positive about.

* Integrate social media into digital journalism modules, so media students are able to tackle the platforms with confidence before they’ve graduated.

* Inject concepts and examples of entrepreneurial journalism into their modules during the course, making it something they are comfortable with throughout their first learning experiences of the world of journalism.

And this doesn’t mean just pointing them at The Huffington Post.

We considered, just for a moment, the positive impact on British Journalism if students left colleges fully-digitised, social-media-savvy, blogging with passion, and also able to handle standard journo fodder tasks with ease and confidence.

Powerful stuff, huh? Inspiring and exciting meeting – many thanks, Jason.