The NCTJ and PA have partnered on a free training course to boost women’s sports journalism.
The 11-week course is open to applications from anyone who wants to become a full-time journalist, not just women, although it has been designed to “spearhead future conversations around women’s sport”.
PA Training will run the part-time course between 2 October to 18 December on Sundays, as well as Monday and Wednesday evenings in London.
The National Council for the Training of Journalists has accredited the course, meaning students will receive the level 3 Certificate in Foundation Journalism, and it is being coordinated by sportswear company Nike.
The Telegraph’s first ever women’s sports editor Anna Kessel will share insights with the students alongside a number of other journalists who are “pushing the female sports agenda through their own platforms”.
The Telegraph launched a dedicated section for women’s sports in March with a monthly print supplement, weekly newsletter, and a number of well-known names, including tennis coach Judy Murray, as contributors.
Other journalists taking part will include Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, head of editorial at online magazine Gal-dem, Shannon Mahanty, acting commissioning editor for Elle UK, and Felicia Pennant, founder of football and fashion magazine Season.
According to the NCTJ, students on the course will learn key journalistic skills like how to write a match report, how to create a podcast or video blog, and how to interview sportspeople.
They will get the opportunity to have work published by Nike London, report live from women’s sports tournaments, and be helped to find a work placement after the course has finished.
Earlier this week the Women’s Sports Trust, which works to raise the visibility of women’s sports, published the results of analysis of media from between 29 April and 11 August.
The analysis looked at the BBC Sport, Telegraph, Guardian and Sky Sports websites at the same time each day and found that women’s sport featured in at least half of the top ten stories on 20 per cent of the days monitored.
It also found that 45.7 per cent of the top ten stories on the BBC Sport homepage each day featured women’s sport, and that Telegraph Sport led on stories about women’s sport on 45 per cent of the days.
Tammy Parlour, joint chief executive of the trust, said: “The fact that we can now show it is possible to reach parity in coverage for women’s sport is exciting because it means it can be done again, we just need to create the right circumstances.
“After being told for many years there wasn’t an audience for women’s sport we now have further proof that this is far from the case and we can only see this growing in the future.”
Picture: NTB Scanpix/Marit Hommedal via Reuters
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