Tom Wells
"Even now I still find myself falling back on tips I picked up during the course."
Now working at The Sun.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What qualifications do I require?
We normally look for a minimum of two A levels or three highers to be selected for the course. However there are occassions where other experience candidates have means that we can vary this entry requirment. All candidates will however be asked to undertake a written test as part of the selection process.
- Which of your centres should I choose
We offer exactly the same course whether you choose to enroll in London or Newcastle. Both offer the opportunity to learn in a real-world environment. The Newcastle course is embedded in the offices of the Evening Chronicle and Journal newspapers. The London course is embedded in the Press Association’s headquarters.
Both courses follow the NCTJ syllabus and both offer highly practical programmes of study.
Most trainees will select the location based on which will be most convenient for them. The London centre is close to Victoria Station meaning commuting from anywhere in the south east is relatively simple.
Newcastle is a thriving regional capital with a great nightlife that offers relatively low cost accommodation and great communications,links to the north and Scotland.
Whichever you prefer, you can rest assured you will get the very best training there is.
- Will I be offered a place on the courses
We take recruitment to the courses extremely seriously as our aim is for those paying their own way through to be as talented if not more so than those already in jobs who are sent on our courses by their employer.
As a result, you can expect to have to attend a group interview, set several written assessments and be interviewed on a one-to-one basis.
If you are successful at getting on the course, however, you can be pretty sure that you have what it takes to be a journalist.
- Will I get a job?
We can’t give a 100 per cent guarantee, but we can point to a track record which says that pretty much everyone who successfully completed our course over the past 15 years has been offered a job in news journalism.
Our trainees are highly sought after by editors. Even now, in the most challenging of times for graduate employment, almost all trainees from our latest courses who passed their NCTJ exams, have got reporting jobs.
- How tough is the course?
Don’t be under any illusions; it is hard work. From day one your day will be tightly timetabled from 9am to 5pm and you will be expected to do an hour of shorthand homework every night. If you are looking for an easy ride, you should find another journalism course.
Some of the people on our courses are already employed as journalists and are being sponsored by their employers, so the culture is the same as you would expect at work. Attendance is compulsory, it is business dress throughout and for some of those on the course, failing exams will mean no job.
You can be expected to be treated just the same as a privately funded delegate.
We believe if you are making this kind of investment in your future, you are entitled to be learning 100 per cent of the time – and that’s just what you will get from the 17 weeks you spend with us. That’s probably why editors like our graduates so much.
- How do you compare to other courses?
We think we are different to most others. At a university or college-based course, you will find the courses are often longer and less intensive. We are proud of our pass rates in shorthand and the other exams and can show a record of progression into work that is second to none.
But it is our closeness to the industry that probably makes us stand out more than anything.
Being based in a big media company means you are never far from the action, you will have the opportunity to do real stories almost from day one and in such a fast-changing industry, you can be confident you are being trained in the skills required of today’s new breed of journalist.