Taster Day for Budding Journalists
(l-r) Ken Eaton and Simon Fitzjohn (Senior Tutors in HE Journalism & Media) with Julia Salisbury
Harlow College offered an insight into the job of a professional journalist on Wednesday 1 July at their Creative Taster Day.
The day, which took place at University Centre Harlow, situated on the Harlow College campus, involved sample sessions of press law, shorthand and news writing with a tour of our state of the art facilities, including TV and radio studios.
Harlow College recently celebrated their 50th anniversary of delivering journalism at the Velizy Avenue site. Former journalism students include Piers Morgan, former This Morning presenter Richard Madeley, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and BBC 6 Music presenter Steve Lamacq.
The Journalism Centre at Harlow College is Britain's oldest journalism school and is recognised as a leader in training by the industry. Staff specialise in many areas of journalism and retain strong links with the industry.
The NCTJ diploma is a one-year course, also available as a 6-month fast track, and regarded by many editors to be the gold standard in training. Last year, Harlow College topped the NCTJ table for the accredited fast-track courses at further education colleges, with 44 per cent of news journalism students meeting the industry standard.
Senior tutor, Simon Fitzjohn said: "The idea of the day is to demonstrate how essential to journalism the NCTJ diploma is. The taster day will provide an insight into the NCTJ course and will involve taster lessons in law, news writing, interviewing and shorthand where students will learn the shorthand alphabet and how to write their names. There will be a tour of our facilities, including the radio and TV studios where students can see where they will be working. Our own BTEC students will be there and we aim to help with the transition to higher education."
One of the people who joined the taster day was Julia Salisbury, 18, from Old Harlow: "It's a really well structured course, very interactive with supportive staff. I've had a go at doing shorthand, which was a bit daunting but with practice I'm sure that will be a good skill to learn. I hope to start the 1 year NCTJ course at Harlow College in September."