NCTJ Launches Journalism Skills Academy
The NCTJ has launched its Journalism Skills Academy, an online academy to help improve journalists’ skills at all stages of their careers and for those interested in becoming a journalist.
The NCTJ has worked with partners in the news media sector and academia to create learning packages for journalists working across all platforms.
Joanne Butcher, NCTJ chief executive, said “The launch of the NCTJ’s Journalism Skills Academy marks a significant milestone in the charity’s development and the training we provide to support the UK journalism industry.
“Working with our partners, we aim to increase the range of learning resources available to journalists throughout their careers and to widen access to our training and qualifications.
“Although planned long before the pandemic, remote working and learning have made the vision we have for the JSA to revitalise a culture of ongoing professional development across the journalism industry even more vital.
“I’d like to thank Matt Cooke and everyone at GNI for the wonderful support they have given us to reach this point and to the NCTJ team for their outstanding work on this exciting new project.”
John Whittingdale, Minister of State for Media and Data, has also voiced his support for the project, describing it as a, “one-stop shop for journalists at all stages of their careers to develop their knowledge and skills”.
The Journalism Skills Academy offers courses for journalists on fact-checking and verification, writing for the web and media law. There will be a mix of free refresher courses and resources as well as paid-for programmes.
They will also offer video masterclasses led by experts in the field and provide tips for CVs and cover letters from editors. Users can also complete quizzes to test and improved their knowledge on a range of journalistic topics, such as shorthand and media law.
The JSA will also be the centre point for all of the NCTJ’s distance learning programmes, including their NQJ course which allows journalists to study the qualification online for the first time.
The scheme is supported by the Google News Initiative. To find out more about JSA, visit their website here.