A behind the scenes guide to studying at News Associates: The end of 2017

Sky Sports News, shorthand and lots of success – we’re ending 2017 on a high at News Associates. 

This September we welcomed two new cohorts of full-time trainees eager to undertake their NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism at News Associates – officially the UK’s number one NCTJ journalism school. And we’ve really thrown them into the deep end. Click here to join us in 2018.

Here’s what we’ve been up to…

We’ve whittled down the Shorthand World Cup and Plate to four finalists. Watch this space. It could get heated.

Our sports journalism trainees spent a day at Sky Sports News in Osterley witnessing first-hand what it takes to produce a rolling sports news TV channel – and they even got to join morning news conference. 

Read more about what they got up to here.

The Guardian north of England editor Helen Pidd spoke to our Manchester trainees about all the important things in journalism.

We sat some shorthand exams.

And passed some shorthand exams.

Fresh from their early morning trip to Osterley, our sports journalism trainees went to Cambridge for the Society of Editors Conference 2017.

sports journalism courses london

Read more about their trip here.

Meanwhile, our fast-track and part-time trainees witnessed a protest while at Mayor’s Question Time at City Hall.

We’ve been on the road a lot ourselves too.

From live text commentary to mobile journalism, our trainees were determined to cover the budget.

Our managing editor James Toney and #TeamNA grad Ben Hayward both spoke at the NCTJ Conference, which you can read more about here.

Then we put our glad rags on for the NCTJ Awards for Excellence 2017.

Before the awards came rolling in. Again.

News Associates is officially the UK’s number one NCTJ journalism course – for the third year in a row.

Click on the picture below to read more about our course success.

Head of journalism Manchester Andrew Greaves, with managing editor James Toney, head of journalism London Graham Moody and deputy managing editor Graham Dudman

But the trainees did all the hard work!

Anna Schaverien was crowned Student Journalist of the Year –  the third straight year a News Associates graduate has won the prize, which is awarded for the best examination results achieved nationally in the NCTJ’s Diploma in Journalism.

And #TeamNA proved they aren’t just good in the classroom, they’re great in the newsroom too.

With Katie Falkingham scooping trainee sports journalist of the year and Neil Athey taking home trainee news journalist of the year.

journalism courses london
Anna Schaverien (New York Times), Neil Athey (Lancashire Telegraph) and Katie Falkingham (Sportsbeat)

Read more about our success here.

Then our award-winning went global.

As did our World Cup coverage.

And the love for shorthand got real.

Our sports journalism trainees have had a busy few weeks putting together their November e-zine and kicking off their Monday morning weekend sport round-up on Facebook Live.

Read their latest e-zine by clicking on the front page below.

Meanwhile our fast-track trainees sourced, presented and edited this package for South West Londoner. With feedback from former Sky News/ITV News executive Simon Cole.

And you can’t keep #TeamNA off the TV!

You also can’t stop them winning awards!

We’ve also had great success in the latest wave of NQJ passes and JDF applications.

Bring on 2018!

Want to be a part of it next year? We are now interviewing for our fast-track, part-time and sports journalism courses in London and Manchester – apply here.

You might also like:

A Day in the Life of a News Associates Journalism Trainee

A Day in the Life of a News Associates Sports Journalism Trainee

You can also follow the success of our trainees and alumni on Facebook and Instagram.