Scoop for University of Northampton Journalism students with national mentoring scheme

Student reporters will make headlines thanks to a new partnership with a leading journalists’ support organisation.

From January next year, the John Schofield Trust will open its network of established reporters to university undergraduate students, and those at University of Northampton (UON) will be some of the first to benefit.

The Trust is named after BBC reporter John Schofield who was killed reporting from the war in Croatia. His wife created the charity to recognise and support young journalists.

They offer mentoring and career guidance for people from underrepresented groups and sixth-form students who want to get into journalism, or early career journalists (those who have worked in the profession for less than five years).

University students will be matched with a working journalist from the Trust’s ‘contacts book’ of hundreds of local, regional, or national mentors.

This can be based on an area of journalism the student wants to know more about, if they have a shared life experience to explore (for instance, if both are wheelchair users) or if there is a skill they’d like to develop (such as pitching their stories).

When matched, learning and development objectives for the students will be individually tailored to the student, who will meet their mentor once a month for a year. The journalists will share insights into what they do and help the student build their confidence and technical skills.

Kate Ironside, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, says: “Recent Government events such as Partygate and Liz Truss’ calamitous tenure as Prime Minister show us how crucial journalism is at holding the powers that be to account and providing the public with answers and reassurances.

“University of Northampton students will be part of the next generation of journalists continuing this important work. We are proud to partner with the John Schofield Trust for this excellent mentoring and support opportunity to make sure they are ‘reporter-ready’ when they graduate.”

Mentoring at the John Schofield Trust will complement the range of support and opportunities available to UON Journalism students.

These include learning first-hand from seasoned reporters, the chance to present a show on community radio station NLive, and a guaranteed job or paid-for internship at the end of their studies through the University’s unique Employment Promise.

CEO of the Trust, David Stenhouse, said: “We’re really pleased to have the University of Northampton on board as one of our partners for the pilot year of our new mentoring scheme. We’ve been lucky enough to meet some of your talented students earlier in the year when we visited campus and it’s clear they will all make a fantastic contribution to journalism.

“Our mentoring scheme – which will reach university students for the first time in 2023 – has a reputation across the media sector as contributing significantly to the diversity and breadth of new talent in newsrooms.”