ABSTRACT
The training of journalists in Britain is a relatively new phenomenon. In the United States, university training started in the late nineteenth century with the first journalism school founded in 1908 at the University of Missouri. Major changes to National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) qualifications have been made in recent years. In 1970, the first university journalism course was launched at University College, Cardiff. The vast majority of first jobs now go to applicants who have already achieved a basic journalism qualification such as the NCTJ diploma. Many editors argue that they require applicants with broad interests and knowledge rather than bookish experts in the narrow academic discipline of communications. Journalists have to remember that if their Curriculum Vitae (CV) does not show a professionally accredited qualification the NCTJ diploma being the most obvious it is increasingly likely to go in the bin.
