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By Richard Parsons, Course Director
It sounds better, doesn’t it? The Diploma in Journalism. Certainly better than the tongue-twisting Pre-entry Certificate in Newspaper Journalism, which is now heading towards the history books.
The hope now is that the NCTJ’s new, revised syllabus for trainee journalists will match that impressive new title.
Every subject has been scrutinised and adapted to meet the changing needs of our industry.
In some cases, like Public Affairs, it’s a big change with a reduction from two examinations to just one (and a suitable journalism-based written project to run alongside it). In others, like Shorthand, the change is more subtle but still with a real-world element to it.
Everyone has had a say along the way – with News Associates arguing that Law Court Reporting still has a relevance in the curriculum - and the consensus was announced in April.
There were some surprises, I will admit.
This time last year, it seemed that Video Journalism were the buzzwords in both training centres and newsrooms. Now, after a rapid slide down the order, it is an option we can offer trainees. And we will.
Sub-editing and Sports Journalism, two optional extra subjects that News Associates have offered free since they were introduced, can now be adopted as part of a trainee’s core set of subjects.
It will give many centres a problem as they are not currently set up for it, but everyone will have to embrace some of it if they are to teach the new Diploma from this September.
The NCTJ is hoping that at least half its 40 accredited centres will take this new direction, but it has left the option for those who cannot adapt quickly to change to continue with the old curriculum for one more year before teaching the Diploma from September 2011.
No-one likes change – and it’s hard for those of us that teach journalism to adapt our methods – but if we don’t react to what’s happening in the world of work we are not preparing trainees in the best possible way for a new career.
And there’s no doubt that an open-minded multi-skilled trainee with a passion for the job is just the sort of employee that editors will be looking for, indeed are already looking for.
Gone are the days when you simply prepared a story for tomorrow’s/next week’s edition of the paper. Now, it may need to go on the web immediately as a breaking news item (with a heading possibly written by the reporter), readers’ views will be sought by the use of social networking and there may need to be illustrations, both still and moving pictures, which are captured...again by the reporter.
All of the potential trainees we are now accepting are thinking in this way and, if we can prepare them thoroughly for the world of work, there is no reason why they cannot be the future of the industry.
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