About
Up To Speed – Courses For Journalists and Photographers
At Up To Speed we have been running journalism courses since 2006 and our courses have been accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists since 2007.
We are based in the Bournemouth Daily Echo building where we have our own news room.
Up To Speed journalists have gone on to work in every area of the profession from newspapers to magazines and from broadcasting to online news.
We hope you find a course that suits you. Call us on 01202 411288 to discuss or click to apply.
Or drop us an email.
ENTRY QUALIFICATIONS
Most of our students are recent graduates, but we welcome applications from people with three good A Levels, or an equivalent qualification.
School leavers, who have taken the course in recent years are now working in the following jobs:
- newspaper reporter
- fashion writer
- magazine journalist
- Public Relations executive
- Parliamentary researcher
Gap Year students have earned the NCTJ qualification with us before going on to study at Bristol, Durham, Lancaster, Manchester, Kingston and the London School of Economics.
Career-Changers have left behind jobs in IT, care work, diving, the Royal Navy, banking and tourism and now working as newspaper reporters, press officers, sports journalists and science correspondents.
Meet Up To Speed’s Journalism and Photography Tutors
Sport Tutor Rick Broadbent is The Times Athletics Correspondent
News tutor Tom Hill has worked for Sky News, ITN, and BBC News
Magazine tutor Ali Wood publishes her own entertainment magazines
Photography tutor Neil Turner is BPPA Vice-Chairman
The Course Director is Tom Hill. Tom has worked as a reporter in newspapers, radio and television. He was a producer on flagship news programmes for ITN, the BBC, Sky News and GMTV. Later, Tom was Course Leader of the BA (Hons) Degree in Multi-Media Journalism at Bournemouth University.
The Athletics Correspondent of The Times is our Sports Journalism tutor. Rick Broadbent has covered every major sporting event in the past including the World Cup, Olympic Games, the Ashes, Ryder Cup, the Open, Six Nations rugby, world championship boxing and Formula One. He has also written six books about sport.
Ali Wood left a staff job on a boating magazine five years ago to launch Listed Magazine and has turned it into the South Coast’s premier guide for lifestyle and entertainment. Ali teaches Magazine Journalism for us, covering two units called the Business of Magazines and Magazine Sub-Editing.
Freelance press photographer Neil Turner has spent his working life in London, taking pictures for national titles including fourteen years on the staff of the Times Supplements. He is the Vice-Chairman of the British Press Photographers’ Association and has consulted many of Britain’s top photographers in devising the syllabus for Photojournalism.
Andy Martin spends most of his days running the Bournemouth Daily Echo’s busy news desk, but finds time to teach our students Public Affairs twice a week. Andy has chaired political meetings featuring both David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the last year.
Lynn Jackson brings twenty years of experience as a senior newspaper reporter and magazine journalist to her teaching of Reporting.
Ken Brown devoted most of his working life to fighting crime, but now dedicates his time to teaching people how to write about crime. Ken was one of Britain’s most senior police officers before embarking on a second career as a Media Law lecturer 15 years ago.
Karen Ballam has taught hundreds, if not thousands, of young journalists the art of Shorthand in the last 15 years. So, she’s responsible for keeping an awful lot of reporters Up To Speed.
Andy, Lynn, Ken and Andy all teach NCTJ units on Bournemouth University’s BA(Hons) Multi-Media Journalism Course.
Funding
Up To Speed is a private training centre and so our courses are not covered by the Government’s student loans.
Fees are payable in advance and details are given on each course page.
You can apply for funding from the Journalism Diversity Fund if you can demonstrate that you come from a social or ethnic background that is under-represented in British journalism. Please note the schedules below are for applications to the JDF and are not the deadlines for applying to Up To Speed courses.
