NCTJ Courses, NCTJ Diploma, NCTJ Photo, NCTJ Accredited Courses

"Without Up To Speed I would not have been able to get a job in journalism. The facilities there are first class and it was a great atmosphere to take my first few steps as a journalist."

Ryan Jennings, Reporter, Maldon Standard

"Up to Speed is friendly and supportive, with brilliantly helpful tutors. Up to Speed has definitely prepared me well for my career, and I know my editor thinks so too!"

Helen Tunnicliffe, Senior Reporter, The Chemical Engineer

"I find that I use my knowledge of Public Affairs every day. I often find myself writing political stories."

Daniel Shane, Editor, Network Middle East

"It is fantastic to have got something to do in my chosen field after taking the course at Up To Speed"

Sean Raymond, Sports Content Writer

"I'm pretty sure that my work experience at the Echo was responsible for me getting the job ... and of course obtaining 100wpm shorthand!"

Alana Lewis, News Editor, Llanelli Star

"We are here to give you the skills to succeed. Contact us now to make sure you are Up To Speed."

Tom Hill, Up To Speed's Founder

"I would recommend a course at Up To Speed to anyone seeking a career in journalism. The tuition is first-rate, the facilities are excellent, and the staff are knowledgeable and supportive."

Timothy John, Assistant Editor, Training Journal

"I really enjoyed my time here and I couldn't have asked for better teachers. It's amazing how much I have learned in these last couple of months. Doing this course has opened many doors for me."

Chrissy Symmons, Reporter, Shropshire Star

"The course is housed in a fantastic setup, giving students the facilities and guidance to develop their own style of journalism to a professional standard. I'm not surprised to hear of the success of past students."

Neil Lancefield, Press Association Multi-Media Journalist

"I'm so grateful for the tuition and help I received during my time at Up To Speed and also after the course finished."

Rebecca Greenow, Celebrity Writer, Reveal

"I learned about Twitter and blogging at Up To Speed and that's how I became an online columnist writing about Formula 1. It's so exciting."

Laura Allard, F1 Blogger and Social Media Executive, Cunard

"Tom could not have been more helpful when it came to advice and help with job applications. "

Ruth Norris, Assistant Editor, Cambridge University Press

"I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Up to Speed and it set me up well to begin my first job as a reporter; I use the knowledge I gained on the course on a daily basis. Mastering 100wpm shorthand was the best thing I've ever done."

Hannah White, Senior reporter, Salisbury Journal

"Up To Speed was a real springboard into sports journalism and the skills I learnt on the course have been highly valuable to my work at Sky Sports."

Rachel Griffiths, Football writer, Skysports.com

"If you're considering working in journalism, the NCTJ is the only place to start. I'd have no hesitation in recommending Up To Speed as the place to begin that career."

Rory White, Used Car Writer, What Car?

"I definitely wouldn't have stood a chance of getting my job if I hadn't been on this course, so thanks for everything."

Jack Kitson, Sports content writer

"The course has set me up really well for the job and I am loving it."

James Bass, Freelance editor, ESPN

"I am so pleased to have found a job writing about sport, it's something I have always wanted to do."

Chris Knight, Sports content writer

"Tom does a great job at Up To Speed. I went from knowing very little about journalism to earning some fantastic grades, invaluable contacts and top-end freelance work."

Michael Dias, Founder, Fame Awaits

"My editor on placement just kept saying that it was a brilliant idea to qualify before going to university."

Becca Parlby, Gap Year NCTJ student

"It's always been a dream of mine to work for a magazine, and I couldn't be happier as I am now the editor of a title."

Alice Rook, Editor, Do More Magazine

"I am really pleased that it has all worked out for me and that my decision to do something different, and not just follow all my friends to university, has paid off."

Heather Findlay, Features Writer, That's Life magazine

"It was absolutely excellent as I got the qualifications I needed and my boss was really impressed that I hadn't just followed everyone else and gone to university."

Laura Herbert, Reporter, Reading Post

"I have no hesitation in describing the knowledge, skills and experience both the course and Tom himself has provided me with as invaluable for securing a job in journalism."

Paul Briden, Writer, Know Your Mobile

"Without Tom's journalism school, I would never have landed my first job. Likewise, my every subsequent career success can be directly or indirectly ascribed to the education I received at Up to Speed."

Alexander Shaw, Parliamentary Researcher

Posts Tagged ‘photojournalist’

Your Dream Job In Photojournalism

Monday, July 11th, 2011 at 1:59 pm

If you dream of being a photojournalist covering stories for magazines, then you are not alone.

We have just completed a year-long survey with the help of people visiting the Up To Speed website to find out what you are looking for in a career in photography.

About 550 people used our polls to answer three simple questions: where they would like to see their work published, what their preferred role might be and what their dream job would be.

In answer to the first question 44.57% said they would like to see their work published in magazines while 24.68% wanted to see their pictures in newspapers.

A whopping 68.84% wanted to be photojournalists, while 22.8% liked the idea of becoming press photographers.

Finally, 68.18% said photojournalist was their dream job, while 21.45% were yearning to become press photographers.

You can see the polls in full below and vote yourself.

We use the surveys to adapt the teaching on our NCTJ-accredited Fast-Track Photojournalism course to your preferences.

The course covers units in photographic skills and practice as well as media law and writing.

Our Photography Tutor Neil Turner is regularly published in national newspapers and magazines.

Neil’s pictures of foraging for wild food appeared in the Guardian’s Best of British Supplement.

Tags: Bournemouth Photojournalism, dg28.com, Neil Turner, photojournalism course, photojournalist, press photographer, press photography course, The Guardian, Up To Speed Photojournalism, Wild Garlic
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Up To Speed Photojournalism By Debbie Yawetz

Thursday, July 7th, 2011 at 3:14 am

For the last few months Debbie Yawetz has been learning photojournalism at Up To Speed in Bournemouth.
Her tutor on the NCTJ-accredited course is national news and PR photographer Neil Turner. Debbie’s course has included work placements on The Times and with a national magazine company. Why not take 30 seconds to enjoy some of the images Debbie has captured?

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Tags: Bournemouth Photojournalism, Debbie Yawetz, Debbie Yawetz photographer, NCTJ, NCTJ photojournalism, Neil Turner, photojournalism, photojournalist, press photographer, Up To Speed Photojournalism
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Up To Speed Journalism Careers Advice Tip 5 Go For It!

Saturday, June 12th, 2010 at 5:30 am

In the fifth of our series of posts on careers in journalism, Up To Speed Journalism’s founder Tom Hill gives his final piece of advice for people considering journalism as a career – go for it!

If you really want to be a journalist, here are three simple thoughts for you:

Don’t just stand there, do something.

There’s no time like the present.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

There is no point in dwelling on what might have been in the past, or in dreaming of what could be in the future, if…

It is what you do now that counts. Your life story, when you come to write it, will be the sum of all the things you have done, not a litany of lost opportunities. You only have one life, so put it to good use.

Consider the stories of two people, born more than ninety years apart, which appeared on different pages of the same copy of the Daily Telegraph.

On the front page, a superb photograph by Gerald Herbert of Associated Press, captures the moment when two-year-old Redjeson Hausteen Claude is reunited with his Mother Daphnee Plaisin after being trapped for two and half days in the rubble of his home in Haiti.

On an inside page, there is an obituary of Helen Lewis, a talented dancer who inspired generations of girls in Belfast. Mrs Lewis, 93, was born in the Sudeten town of Trutnov in 1916 and survived three years in Terezin, Auschwitz and Stutthof camps. The obituary describes how she lost her Mother, cousins and first husband in the holocaust, but survived to become “an award-winning choreographer and pioneer of modern dance in Northern Ireland”.

Both stories are about survival against the odds and both show hope triumphing over appalling adversity. Let us hope that in Redjeson’s case, the AP photograph, which has appeared on front pages all over the world, will help to ensure that he and his Mother are not forgotten amidst the rubble and despair of Port-au-Prince.

Making a decision about a career may pale into insignificance in comparison to these stories. However, deciding to become a journalist and acting upon that decision is an opportunity to learn from the example of the people we write about and to grasp a chance for a fulfilling life.

And as a journalist, you could have an opportunity to make a difference to the lives of others.

So, if you have fire in your belly, a hunger to make something of your life and the determination to succeed, act now and go for it.

The next few blogs in the series will focus on journalism skills, starting with the so-called soft skills used by even the most hard-nosed reporters.

Tags: broadcast journalist, Haiti, how do I become a journalist, journalism careers, journalism courses, photojournalist, Port-au-Prince, press photographer, Reporter, sports reporter, Tom Hill, what skills do I need to be a journalist
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Up To Speed Journalism Careers Advice Tip 4 Believe In Yourself

Saturday, June 12th, 2010 at 5:27 am

Tip Number 4 Believe In Yourself

If you’re considering a career in journalism, you’ve probably asked yourself more than once, “Have I got what it takes?”

That is certainly a good starting point. But what answers should you be looking for?

As with any walk of life, journalism attracts a broad range of people and most newsrooms have their fair share of “characters”.

However, it is possible to observe some common aptitudes and attitudes among journalists. I’ll come back to some of these in more detail in future posts on the Up To Speed Blog over the next few weeks, but here’s a simple list in the meantime:

1. A genuine curiosity and interest in other people and their stories. Everyone has a story to tell if you have the curiosity to find it.

2. An empathy for your readers and an ability to see those stories through their eyes and to ask the questions they would like answered.

3. A way with words. It may sound obvious, but sometimes people who like the idea of meeting famous people, or sitting in the press box at a premiership football ground, can forget that there is no such thing as a free perk in journalism. If you really enjoy the process of writing about people you have met and events you have witnessed, then there’s every chance you will enjoy your life as a journalist. But you do have to write those stories and write them well.

4. Creativity and imagination. It may not always seem that way as deadlines loom, but one of the biggest privileges journalists enjoy is the opportunity to use their brains creatively. Lateral thinking is encouraged and journalists are lucky enough to see the products of their labours produced on a printed page or a television or computer screen, or to hear it broadcast on the radio.

5. A can-do approach to your work and life. The phrase, “That’s so not fair” is never heard, or at least never tolerated, in newsrooms. It’s more a case of when the going gets tough, the tough get going. When snow brought large parts of Britain to a halt this month, the journalists didn’t cower at home under their duvets, they made their way through the snow and ice to stand shivering and broadcasting by the side of motorway junctions so that millions of television viewers could find out what was going on.

6. Self-belief is also essential. If you genuinely think that you possess the first five traits, then you can realise your dreams if you have confidence and you believe in yourself.

Paradoxically, I once read that the trait a newsreader most admired in two of the BBC’s most senior reporters of the time was “insecurity”. What he meant was that they were perfectionists who were always worried their work would not be good enough. That ability to criticise yourself and your work and to strive to be better every day is essential, if you are to reach the top. Another reason senior reporters can be insecure is fear. They are afraid that a young reporter with more energy, drive and ambition will come along and steal their top-dog mantle. Who knows, that could be you?

Tags: broadcast journalist, how do I become a journalist, journalism careers, journalism course, journalism courses, magazine journalism, news reporter, photojournalist, sports reporter, Up To Speed Journalism
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