The NCTJ course at Brighton Journalist Works is easily one of the best things I’ve ever done.
In 2016, after roughly a year of saving up and penny-pinching, I was ready to take my first steps into the profession I’d wanted to pursue for most of my teen life; journalism.
Although I had briefly gone over the curriculum already, I was timid and nervous before entering the building for the first time for an introduction to shorthand. But ultimately, despite the jitters, committing myself to BJW’s part-time course has worked out perfectly.
Coupling the training with three days a week writing at home for a football website and a further three days at a local cafe, I was working a full week with barely any days off from roughly September to July.
And believe me, the course is tough work as it is. Ranging from media law to court reporting, and essential journalism to shorthand, there were plenty of things I didn’t grasp straight away.
But the tutors at BJW were amazing during my time there. All aspects of the curriculum were explained thoroughly, everyone was available for any questions I had outside of class, the training instilled me with confidence and set me on my way to the dream job I landed in early March.
As for my classmates, they were a constant source of inspiration. Hearing what they were getting up to away from the course, what kind of scoops they were nabbing from their patches and the stories they were writing motivated me to get out there and craft pieces myself.
I had been working at home for 90min, a football news platform, but upon completion of the course I enquired about and ultimately landed an internship in their office in London from September.
I knuckled down, worked hard, proved my worth and now, in my seventh month at their office, I’ve landed my dream job as an editor of the written content on the website.
And I owe a huge amount of my progress to BJW. Before, writing was a hobby of mine, a hobby often littered with spelling errors and grammatical abnormalities, but the course showed me how to create copy efficiently, succinctly, and to the point, and also how to write in a fluid and artistic manner for reviews and feature writing.
Now, I look forward to every day at work, where I talk and write about what I’m most passionate about with other like-minded people, and I owe a lot of it to Brighton Journalist Works.