National newspaper journalists offer exclusive seminars to state-school pupils
Young Journalists' Academy summer school will feature reporters from the Guardian, the Times, Reuters and the News of the World
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Young journalists from London state schools are set to receive exclusive seminars from some of the country's top journalists in order to help them break into the media.
Reporters from the Guardian, the Times, Reuters and the News of the World, will offer advice to aspiring teenage journalists at the Young Journalists' Academy summer school, starting on 31 July.
The academy received more than 100 applications for the week-long programme , with just 26 places on offer. Those who attend will be given advice on how to write across a range of styles, from hard news and comment pieces to cultural reviews and community affairs.
YJA coordinator Nathalie Rothschild said the academy hopes to show that anyone can aim for a career in journalism.
"The YJA challenges the idea that you need to have the 'right' education or be lucky enough to have personal connections in the media world in order to be allowed to grace its hallowed halls," she said in a release. "Our students learn that with enough ambition and drive, they can reach their goals – but that they also have to be prepared to put in some hard work."
The scheme was set up in 2006 in response to a Times Higher Education Supplement and Sutton Trust report, which found 50 per cent of top journalists working in the UK went to private school.
This year's summer school will run most of its sessions from Canary Wharf, led by media professionals including Decca Aitkenhead, lead interviewer for the Guardian and Richard Beeston, foreign editor at the Times.
The students will also take part in a day of workshops at Reuters and will be taken on a tour of the BBC Television Centre and News International offices. Each student will be keeping up a blog of their activities over the week with the best two bloggers awarded with a work placement at the Times.
While the academy currently only accepts applications from within London, it says it hopes to open up its opportunities to other areas of the country in future years.
