The NCTJ has bolstered its board with a handful of high-profile appointments.
The new chairman of the board of directors is Telegraph Group editorial director Kim Fletcher. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has been made a director.
The move comes as the NCTJ is under increasing pressure from other newspaper training bodies. In April, the Level Four NVQ in Journalism was relaunched as the Diploma in Newspaper Journalism.
Other appointments to the board are Western Daily Press editor Terry Manners, managing director of Newsquest York, Liz Page, and Society of Editors executive director Bob Satchwell.
Manners said of his appointment: “I just want to play my part in filling youngsters with enthusiasm for the industry. I want them to know the job is hard, but it is fun too, and they have to have a wide vision and knowledge of the jobs available.”
Both Fletcher and Rusbridger are NCTJ-trained: the former cut his teeth at the Star in Sheffield and the latter did his training at the Cambridge Evening News.
The 12-strong NCTJ board meets four times a year.
The appointments were made by Joanne Butcher, who took over as NCTJ chief executive last year. She said: “They are part of a strategy to get more working journalists, editors and publishers involved in our work.”
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