An Excellent CoVE Story
When it comes to journalism training,
the City of Wolverhampton College has been
rated as excellent, and that’s official. That also
goes for media teaching, music, television,
multi-media, animation and photography.
 The college, in partnership with Sandwell College,
has been granted the status
of Centre of vocational
Excellence and our reception
area at our Paget Road
Campus proudly displays
the shield that goes with
the accolade. David Way,
executive director of the
Black Country Learning
and Skills Council, came
along to present the
Mediacove award to the
college.
He said: “We are
delighted with the progress made by Black Country
Mediacove and the enthusiasm and support from
local employers to work with the City Wolverhampton College and Sandwell
College to
develop learning provision that better meets their
individual needs and those of the Black Country
economy."
Securing the status has enabled the college
to expand its high quality teaching in areas like journalist
training, creative photography and radio studio
production.
Capital funds have led to improved production facilities,
notably in video filming areas
and computerized music technology.
Mediacove has improved its links
with employers throughout the
Midlands and also has regular
contacts with 21 regional news-papers.
The opportunities with CoVE can be viewed on
www.mediacove.com
Raring To Go
...Students of the full-time National
Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) course
at the City of Wolverhampton College join forces
with their day-release colleagues to celebrate
success in their preliminary
examinations.
Also there to give support
and encouragement were
Professor Bob Pinker, Privacy
Commissioner at the Press Complaints
Commission, and Joanne Butcher, the
new Chief Executive of the NCTJ.With
the distinguished guests is Vanessa
Cunnington of the Leamington Spa
Observer, who won the college’s award
for outstanding achievement. Ian
Millard, the college’s principal, is standing
behind Vanessa.
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A
fuller report can be read in "Celebrating Success With
the NCTJ"
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Celebrating Success With The NCTJ
 The City of Wolverhampton
College’s
journalism training came in for high
praise at the NCTJ Awards
Presentation afternoon.
Professor Bob Pinker, Privacy
Commissioner at the Press Complaints
Commission, and Joanne Butcher, newly-appointed
Chief Executive of the
National Council for the Training of
Journalists, both congratulated the teaching
team and the college on its results.
Prof. Pinker said that these days most
complaints about Press reports were
usually resolved by mediation rather
than confrontation in the form of a full
hearing. He said this proved the value
of self-regulation when it came to professional
conduct.
In training terms, he said this college
had risen to the challenge of preparing
journalists for their careers with con-siderable
success. Joanne Butcher, who
presented prizes to some of the 32
trainee journalists from all over the
Midlands and some further afield, said
the City of Wolverhampton College
had a “fantastic reputation for long-established
journalism training.”
She said its results scored very highly
in the NCTJ’s league tables and said passing
the exams was a tall order for many
of the council’s students.
Ms Butcher also took the opportunity
to tell the assembled students how
important it still was to work hard on
achieving the shorthand qualifying
speed of 100 words per minute.
Ian Millard, the college’s Principal and
Chief Executive, said the college had a
good news story of its own to tell and
referred to the close partnerships the
college was continuing to build with
industry and commerce locally. It was
important, he emphasized, that the current
skills shortage highlighted by the
Government was addressed. Mr Millard
also took the opportunity to pay tribute
to the NCTJ’s former Chief
Executive Sally Mellis, who died recently
after a short illness.
And the winners
are ...
Awards went to the following day-release trainee journalists: Mark Avery, Coventry
Observer; Richard Adams, Stoke Sentinel; Caroline Beamish, Tamworth Herald;
Deborah Boden, Leek Post and Times; Lisa Buckley, Heartland Evening
News; Hannah Crush, Stoke Sentinel; Vanessa Cunnington,
Leamington Spa Observer; Mia Davis, free-lance; Philip
Dixon, Stoke Sentinel; Tom Guest, Worcester Standard;
Rebecca Fisher, Worcester Standard; Emma Harwood, Rugby
Observer; David Hughes, Wales News Service; Adrian Jones,
Redditch Standard; Joanne Mason, Staffordshire Newsletter;
Ian Morris, Hereford Times; David Palmer, freelance;
Jonathan Peck, Staffordshire Newsletter; Kirsty Stuart,
Leek Post and Times; Jamie Summerfield, Stoke Sentinel;
Clare Roberts, freelance; Porcha Treanor, Bromsgrove
Standard.
Full-time students who gained awards were: Esther Adediran,
Michael Bradley, Michael Beardmore, Christopher Flavell,
Rebecca Hayes, Peter Lewis, Greg Shelton, Catherine Stone,
James Swallow and Priya Suchdev.
Guests at the event were: Prof. Bob Pinker, PCC Privacy
Commissioner; Joanne Butcher, NCTJ Chief Executive; Sam
Holliday, Group Editor, Central Independent Newspapers;
Trevor Reid, Sentinel Newspapers training officer; Liz
Griffin, Editor of the Hereford Times; Killoran Wills,
Editor of the Staffordshire Newsletter, Mike Lockley,
Group Editor, Chase Post Newspapers. |
So Well Deserved
 It
started as an average day in the newsroom but turned
into one that Hereford Times reporter Anita
Howells will never forget.
One telephone call from two
anguished parents presented her
with an exclusive account of the life
and death of 21-year-old drug addict
Rachel Whitear.
Rachel had died, alone, in a seaside
boarding house and Anita listened as
the girl’s parents spoke of their
 determination to use her death as a
warning to others.
The front page
story and picture in the Hereford
Times went round the world in a
matter of hours. Now the painstaking
work and sensitive handling of this
story have been rewarded.
Anita, a former day-release student
at the City of Wolverhampton
College, has been named News
Reporter of the Year (Weeklies) by
her company Newsquest.
And among the first to congratulate
her on the prestigious national award
were the parents of the dead girl.
They wrote to Anita: “Your award
was so well deserved. None of us
guessed that day all that would follow.”
And more happiness was to come.
Within just a few days of the presentation,
Anita was in front of the cameras
again – at her own wedding.
Now she’s Mrs Dale with some wonderful
diary entries to start her
career with!
STOP PRESS: Anita has moved on
since and is now a reporter with the
Reading News Service.
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Law Lesson
David Hughes remembered his law
lessons at the college when he challenged one of
Wales’s top judges.
The Wales News Service reporter was still a
student on the NCTJ day-release course
when he found himself in the legal spotlight.
David, who gained his full certificate on the
course, was covering a rape case when the
Recorder of Cardiff, Judge John Williams
QC,
imposed a section 4 (Contempt of Court
Act) order saying that to name a defendant
would lead to identification of the victim, his
foster sister.
Together with a colleague, he approached the
clerk and a hearing was arranged with the
judge in his chambers.
David and PA reporter Gemma Collins put
forward four points that supported their
application to lift the order:
Public interest. These were serious
offences and the defendant was clearly a danger.
The order was a nullity. Under the Sex
Offenders Act victims of sexual offences
would have their anonymity protected, so the
new order only benefited the defendant.The
order was outside the intended use of
Section 4 which is designed to prevent prejudicial
material from being published and is
only intended to postpone rather than prohibit
publication. They should be able to
report the case in accordance with PCC
guidelines, identifying the defendant but not
the relationship with the victim. The judge
agreed to call counsel back into the courtroom
and put forward their case.
Counsel then agreed that there was no need
for the order. Sue Green, the City of
Wolverhampton College’s NCTJ course
co-ordinator and also law lecturer, said:“Well
done to David – this took a great deal of
courage as a young journalist. He was sure of
the facts having achieved to an extremely
high standard on the course – however to
confront a top judge is a daunting experience.”
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U Magazine Is Born
 Journalism students not so much rose but positively jumped
to the challenge to produce a magazine for everyone at the
City of Wolverhampton College.
U Magazine was born thanks to the efforts of the students on
the full-time National Council for the
Training of Journalists course. Becky
Hayes, appointed editor, showed her mettle
to such good effect that she was subsequently offered,
and accepted, a full-time post on the Kidderminster
Times.
“It was a long,
hard slog,” she said, but almost immediately the team became victims
of their own success
when asked to produce another, even bigger, edition. Esther
Adediran (fashion),
Jon Jenkins and Lynn Grainger (film and theatre), Peter
Lewis (music), Michael
Beardmore (sport), Chris Flavell (nitelife), James
Swallow (www), Priya Suchdev(health) and additional contributions from Greg
Shelton, Mike Bradley and Bronach
Mcnally-Grewal produced another winner.
The first U contained 32 pages of glossy entertainment
and information with full colour throughout.
The second was an action-packed 48 pages.
Now U Magazine is set to continue with a third issue
already being undertaken by the latest batch of
recruits. This new team of NCTJ students is led by
Lynn Grainger.
Read the on-line U Magazine here.
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Big Time
The big time beckons for a former NCTJ
day-release student at the City of
Wolverhampton College.
Phil Dixon was a trainee at the Stoke
Sentinel when he came to us last year.
He made his mark quickly in journalism and
after a few trial shifts in London, the Daily
Mail has now appointed him a features sub-editor.
“I’m
surprised they took me after only two years in the job but
the trial did go really
well,” he told course co-ordinator Sue
Green. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
If there are any other ex-students out there
who’ve made news, been promoted or
changed jobs contact Sue or journalism lecturer
David Griffin on 01902 317564. |
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