In 2023 we introduced 12 months of mentoring for undergraduate journalism students from across the UK and ROI. We believe this is the first scheme of its kind and we’re pleased to announce that this new and much-needed offer to students will be made a permanent part of the Trust’s programmes in 2024.
We prioritise applicants who come to the industry with less privilege and fewer connections.
How does the scheme work?
The offering is simple – each student is paired with an experienced journalist from the area they wish to enter (e.g. if someone is interested in TV sports commentary we will match them with a sports commentator from broadcasting). We won’t just match based on area of journalism but also based on lived experiences and expressed preferences to make the best possible match. In similar fashion to our Early Career programme, the mentoring is 12 months long, and is conducted through a mixture of in-person and virtual meetings.
Every student who takes part will become a Fellow of the John Schofield Trust, and mentors become Senior Fellows.
As well as individual mentoring becoming a Fellow enables students to access our monthly free masterclasses and gain access to our wider network of over 1000 journalists.
This programme for journalism students was introduced as a pilot in 2023 with six participating universities:
You can find the full announcement, including quotes from journalism lecturers here.
The pilot will finish in 2023, except LJMU, whose students begin their mentoring in September 2023.
Feedback has been fantastic so far, and a full assessment will be conducted in June and July 2023 with results published soon after.
This being a university scheme, individuals cannot apply directly. However we are looking for new universities who are interested in taking part in this scheme. If you are a staff member or student and want a chat get in touch info@johnschofieldtrust.org.uk.
