UCLan students bag half the places on Sun training scheme

By UK Journalism

A former and two current students have all been offered places on a prestigious training scheme at The Sun newspaper.

The trio were given half of only six places available from over 1000 applicants to take part in a sub-editors traineeship at The Sun that is delivered by the Press Association.

Mark Hudson a former student and current editor of student newspaper Pluto is one of the lucky three, along with postgraduate newspaper student Andrew Ewart and Dean Scoggins who is a final year undergraduate journalism student.

Mark described it as a dream come true to land a job at The Sun. He said: ìItís always been The Sun for me, I never really wanted to work anywhere else and so to be given this opportunity is fantastic.î

Intensive

They will start their course in July, beginning with an intensive four weeks training at the Press Association. This is followed by several months spent at regional newspapers across the country before going down to The Sun in London.

Andrew said: ìIt will be strange subbing the work of people who have so much more experience than me but The Sun has shown enough faith in me to offer me the position in the first place so itís up to me to prove I have the confidence to do it.î

All three trainees said they never even expected to get into the last 32 applicants because the competition was so intense. Dean is the only undergraduate student to have been accepted onto the scheme.

He said: ìThere were people there with so much more experience than me, the fact that three UCLan students made it into the last 32 is a great achievement for the department let alone that we were awarded half of the final places.î

Tutor Delwyn Swingewood said: ìThey have all shown exceptional ability and proved themselves as all round journalists both at university and on their work placements.î

Such prestigious training means all of the trainees will be well equipped to fast develop their careers.

Head of training at the Press Association Tony Johnston said: ìThis is a fantastic opportunity for all those involved. The training they will receive is second to none aimed at producing the very best in a new generation of sub editors.î

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