Sunday 18 January 2009

JOURNALISM TRAINING




See journalism4schools.blogspot.com for free advice about journalism training options.

LSJ COURSES


See lsj.org for full details of attendance and distance-learning journalism training courses.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? - NO SWEAT (2004-9)



See andrewjknight.blogspot.com for information about former students from the London School of Journalism (2002 onwards).

Visiting lecturers always find it hard to keep up to speed with what students are doing once a course has finished - and at No Sweat the situation is further complicated by teaching different subjects to different classes (and in some cases not meeting classes at all).
Effectively the journalism lecturer is the "lead" lecturer in terms of liaison over work experience placements and co-ordinating portfolio submissions. There's less scope to discuss career prospects in law and government classes and although the college tries to maintain some record of where former students have ended up, it's an imprecise science.
Tutors remember the faces - and most of the names! - but keeping up to date with everyone's careers is a tougher challenge.
Poor record-keeping during the early days of my experiences at No Sweat's old Islington HQ in Loyd Baker Street haven't helped, and in pre-Facebook days one of the biggest hurdles was the tendency of students to change emails and mobiles frequently in the weeks and months after leaving the course, jettisoning hotmail in favour of a new office contact, perhaps.

Exceptions from 2004-5 include David Williams, who went to the Waltham Forest Guardian and Telegraph Online before freelancing for a variety of papers in East London and moving on to Public Finance magazine in the City and later the Health Service Journal, and Felicity Cousins, who became a features writer at Business Traveller, where she still works alongside a small team of fellow students. Jenni Silver worked in the Forest of Dean before gaining a job as assistant news editor on the Citizen in Gloucestershire and David Lindsell is now working with Newsquest titles in Surrey.
Angela Balakrishnan landed a post at The Guardian as a trainee economics reporter, and Adrian Pearson trained at the Crawley News before returning to the north-east and taking up a reporting position in Newcastle, while Dave Burke went to the Luton News and Dunstable Gazette and Lucy Taylor went to South West News in Bristol before landing a job in Dubai.

The Tuesday group from March 2006 were one of the first to suffer me for both journalism and law, including Hannah Fletcher, who returned from China to win a place on The Times graduate scheme, Paul Cahalan, who now works for Newquest in Surrey, and Hazel Slade, who went to work for the Town Crier in St Neots, Huntingdonshire.
Adam Cornell started his reporting career in Gloucestershire before returning to Essex, where he took over the sports pages for a number of mid-Essex titles. While on the Maldon and Burnham Standard, he scooped top prize in the newspaper practice exam in his NCE. Since gaining seniority, he has moved to the Colchester Gazette as a reporter and in 2011 was appointed the paper's crime correspondent.
Oliver Frankham went to the Sevenoaks Chronicle, Tarik Arafa landed a job in the Midlands in a teaching union press office, Melissa Farmer returned to a marketing job in Leicestershire before moving to GovNet Communications in Manchester and Gustavo Montes De Oca headed to Afghanistan for a while, before returning to London.
Joe Williams, who suffered my government classes during the same period, initially pursued his journalism career in Qatar.

Two members of the government class in September 2006 were reunited in Wiltshire, where James Williams and Victoria Ashford both found themselves at Trowbridge working on the Gazette under the recently retired Keith Gale, formerly news editor at the Chronicle in Bath and an old colleague of mine from the 90s.
Gemma Wilson went via work experience in Kilburn to one of the John Lewis magazine titles in Uxbridge before joining Red Bee Media as a sub-editor, while Martin Croucher continued to work for the Epoch Times at the end of the course and Simon Gilbert headed north to the Rugby Observer.

It's rare for a class to keep so closely in touch that they can regularly stage reunions, but the Tuesday September 2006 group
proved the exception, struggling back to the Crown on a number of occasions since the end of their course to catch up (see picture above, which shows Libby, Lauren, Holly and Vicky).
Jon Cheetham and Helen Philpott went to the News Shopper series in North Kent, with James Ankobia ending up at Zoo and Holly Dixon working for Sony. Lauren Crooks joined the Deadline news agency in Edinburgh, where she became news editor before returning to Glasgow as a freelance. In 2010 she joined the Sunday Mail as a staff writer. Martin Webb returned to Sheffield to join a PR agency and Jon remained as a multimedia journalist at the News Shopper until launching his own video production business in 2010.
Rebecca Geach went to Dow Jones, Libby Jones to the Uxbridge Gazette and Alexa van Sickle to a specialist law publishing firm. Vicky Williams continued to pursue her modelling career while exploring writing opportunities, Kate Wade turned to freelance writing from her base in Henley and Angela Sharda has recently moved into financial publishing.

No Sweat's move down the hill from Islington to Clerkenwell not only brought with it the promise of imrpoved teaching facilities but an enviable location in a little corner of the City where local cafes and hostelries have provided a hospitable home from home for journalism students ever since - along with familiar faces like the immortal Richard Morris (above) and legendary shorthand guru Kenn Toft.

Among the Monday March 2007 class to survive my government classes were James Coyne, who joined the Press Association sports training scheme at their Howden HQ in Yorkshire, and Alex Christie-Miller, who went to the West Sussex County Times.
Sophie Pearce returned to university to complete her MA, Lottie Oram went into PR and Hayley Keyes landed a job on the Watford Observer, with Harry Hawkins joining the South Wales Argus, moving to the Wales News Agency in January 2009.

Of the September 2007 Tuesday group - another great class for reunions - Lydia Cordier joined an NGO specialising in crisis intervention, Jonathan Conway moved into PR, Luis Granja worked for Vice magazine and Nick Mayo joined the Maidenhead Advertiser.
Ben Naylor contributes to the arts desk output at The Independent and Maryam Omidi, after initially moving to Havering Council magazine, subsequenty landed a more exotic posting as editor of a news website in the Maldives.
Nina Kelly became a regular freelance contributor to Time Out before considering a return to academia to complete an MA and Anish Puaar, who completed his work experience with the Daily Express, went to work for a Hatton Garden B2B publication, The Trade.
Meanwhile Felicity Crump from the simultaneous Friday course landed a reporter's job on the Bath Chronicle.

From the March 2008 Wednesday group, Oliver Tree moving joined the Courier Media group in North Kent before landing a place of the Daily Mail graduate trainee scheme, later working in New York for the Mail Online, and Sophie Edwards gained a place at the Basildon Echo. Emma Ward joined Aceville Publications in Colchester as an editorial assistant on Crafts Beautiful magazine before stepping up to become deputy online editor and a presenter on the company's crafts demonstration channel. She has since moved on to become news editor before being appointed as the company's special projects co-ordinator.
In the Tuesday class, Verity Broadhurst and Becky Lewis both chose to pursue a career in law, while Liat Clark has pursued a variety of work experience placements with travel magazines and Clare-Marie Dobing joined Wessex Water as a press officer, based in Bath.
David Lewis is working for the Daily Mail online, Belinda Otas joined the BBC World Service, Stefan Glosby is working for business publishers Kogan Page in Islington, and Iain Liddle took up a post with the Wiltshire Gazette in Devizes.
Katie Wilson, who spent much of the course working part-time for the Hackney Gazette, took up a reporter's position with the Wandsworth Borough News, which was subsequently merged with other titles. She continued to work in North Cheam alongside fellow former students like Paul Cahalan (2006) and David Lindsell (2004) before taking up a job with Central News.
From the September 2008 government classes, Rory Jones landed a financial journalism job during the course and Tory Bischoff was offered a position with beatthatquote.com on the day after graduation. Allie Anderson started working freelance shifts at the Hackney Gazette and worked for a variety of publications before becoming editor of the house journal of the British Lung Foundation in 2011. Kristian Brunt-Seymour was offered a trainee reporter's position at South Hams Newspapers in Devon and Natalie Curant took up maternity cover for a beauty journalist's position at the Sunday Mirror's Celebs on Sunday. Louise Miles joined the Essex-based Mulberry Publications as an editorial assistant and James Laurensen works for Hansard in the Houses of Parliament.
Jack Sidders joined Horticulture Week as a reporter before moving to Construction News as a housing reporter.
Of the 2009 government classes, Tim Dickens became reporter for the Bromley Times, Omar el Gamry got a job with the Croydon Guardian, Phil Harrison joined the Essex Enquirer and Jon Reilly gained a job at the finance magazine Treasury Today.
Of the Saturday part-timers in 2009, Ryan Love has worked for Digital Spy, initially as a freelance and later as entertainment reporter.