The Young Reporter four month short course, which is open to students from school year 10 and above, is now open for registration until the 19 January.

Schools wishing to enter into this programme, need to go to the website – www.youngreporter.co.uk/registration to log their interest and receive an information pack.

Similar to the eight month course, which students start in September, this four month version gives schools the opportunity to try the scheme out before committing to the full programme.

Students are given their own accounts and are able to log onto Newsquest’s myriad of online newspapers where they upload their articles. The advantages to them are huge, as it gives them a chance to hone their writing skills and build up a portfolio of published work for use with their CVs and UCAS applications.

Writing to an online audience of almost forty million viewers per month, this programme gives our young reporters, an ideal opportunity to showcase their work and report on issues that are important to them.

Last year our cohort of students wrote on countless different topics from sport, local events, animal welfare, homelessness, climate change and a host of other subjects, all of which are of particular interest to our young people.

Liz Poole from Headington School, who took part in the scheme for the first time last year, said: “All the students were really engaged by the short Young Reporter Scheme, so much so they came to me personally at the start of the academic year to secure a place on the full scheme. It was great to see how this extracurricular endeavour had fired their imagination and interest.

“I would highly recommend this course to any educational practitioner looking to build their students’ independent learning, tenacity and commitment. This course goes beyond development of students’ communication skills, fostering skills which are invaluable in the workplace and in life generally.”

The scheme is not only important to those wishing to follow a career in journalism, as thousands of students doing the scheme in the past have followed completely different careers, but it does help them to work within strict deadlines, improve their research skills and write articles that potentially can impact a real audience.

Those who do wish to pursue career in the media, can be fast tracked onto our four year degree apprenticeship programme, which is open to all students from 16 plus, who are no longer in full time education.

Ezekiel Bertrand, one of the Young Reporters from last year and now involved in the apprenticeship programme, said: “Doing the YRS really opened up my love for journalism and news reporting. I wasn’t always sure what I wanted to do after my exams, and now I couldn’t be happier with the choice I made of becoming an apprentice in Newsquest and it all roots back to doing the YRS.”

Teachers worry that this course will impact on their already busy schedules but apart from submitting the names of students who are interested, they need have no further involvement, as the team at the Young Reporter Scheme work directly with the pupils.

To find out more about this exciting opportunity, visit the website – www.youngreporter.co.uk