John Schofield Trust’s Early Career & Apprentice Mentoring Scheme

Mentors are selected as the most suitable to help the candidate achieve their individual career goals. Fellows are also invited to attend further events and master classes on a range of journalistic topics to support their learning and develop their skills. These also provide the opportunity for early career journalists to expand their networks, getting to know new people and organisations across the industry.

The John Schofield Trust mentoring scheme puts successful candidates in direct contact for a year with an established journalist in the UK or Ireland, who acts as a mentor for them. Mentees fall into one of two categories:

• Early career journalists who have been in the industry for two to five years.
• Apprentice and non-graduate trainee journalists. Applicants must be 18 or over and be on a journalism apprenticeship scheme or a non-graduate journalism training scheme.

Duration

• The mentoring then officially begins in January 2024, running for 12 months to the end of December 2024.

Eligibility Criteria

• You need to meet all of the following criteria:
  • Aged 18 or over on 1 September 2023.
  • Not in full time education.
  • Either working as a broadcast or multimedia (including print, digital) journalist in the UK or the Republic of Ireland, employed or freelance, or an apprentice journalist on an NCTJ-approved journalism apprenticeship scheme in the UK or Republic of Ireland, or on a non-graduate journalism training scheme.
  • If you’re not an apprentice, you need to be within the first two to five years of professional life in the news industry.
  • If you are an apprentice, you must have completed a minimum of six months on a scheme, which includes a relevant diploma by the time the mentoring scheme begins (e.e. Advanced Apprenticeship in Journalism [Level 3] or an NCTJ diploma in the UK or Republic of Ireland).
  • They especially welcome applications from those who come to the sector with less privilege and fewer connections, which is linked to the mission to ensure newsrooms are as diverse as the audiences they serve.

Requirements

• To help them make a fair selection, they need you to provide three things when you apply:
  • Up to 250 words or 3 minutes of video or audio explaining why you would benefit from the John Schofield Trust mentoring scheme.
  • Up to 250 words or 3 minutes of video or audio about a story or assignment that you are particularly proud of working on.
  • If you’re not an apprentice, they need a reference from an experienced journalist or journalism tutor. It might be your current line manager or someone who’s commissioned you for a story, or someone who has previously taught you on a recognised and accredited journalism course.
  • If you are an apprentice, they need a reference from your course leader or the person in charge of the apprenticeship/training scheme you are on.

For more information, visit John Schofield Trust.