Why was I not surprised that the worst National Certificate Examination results in 25 years have just been announced by the NCTJ?

Congratulations to all those who passed, including some who attended my three-day refresher course last September, but the results confirmed what I have suspected for some time, namely that standards across the board are poor on many newspapers.

These results, which should not be taken in isolation, are the culmination of several things, including a failure by many in the newspaper industry to understand what has been going on in too many editorial departments for too long.

There will be those who will moan about our schools and the lack of English which they claim many trainees bring to the job and reporters’ inability to grasp the basic essentials, yet these people will turn a blind eye to the long hours they expect newcomers to work, poor wages and lack of in-house training.

No single factor has resulted in the mess some newspapers have created and, of course, you cannot tar every office with the same brush, but the warning signs have been there for some time.

Do you remember what life used to be like on weekly newspapers? Friday was the day we did the Memory Lane column, ordered a few pictures, did some administration in the office, went down the pub for a couple of hours and got some training.

Who can recall those copy clinics when our blacks were analysed and our failings laid bare? How much easier it was in those days of ancient typewriters to have our copy checked!

What happens today? For a start, copy is never flung back in somebody’s face with the order to “do it again and again until you get it right”. You can’t fling a VDU at anyone!

The pace is so frantic every day that we never pause for breath and over-worked newsdesks or subs re-write and re-intro copy all day long. The trainee reporter sees his work in the paper and thinks that is how he wrote it because nobody ever tells him any different.

Many newspapers compound the problem by giving the trainee reporter a byline he does not deserve simply because design dictates he should have one! Some people reading this will remember the days when to get a byline was a golden moment in one’s career because they were given out so sparingly; it was something to be treasured when you had found and written a really good story which was all your own work.

Today’s junior reporters work very hard on quantity not quality. Read some of the rubbish you can find in newspapers up and down the country and you will see that much of it gets into print.

Each year, I run a number of refresher courses for those taking the examination. Unfortunately not everyone gets sent on my course or those run by others. There is nobody at the newsdesk to help them or a friendly sub to re-write and re-structure what the delegates produce. They are judged on what they write and some of the results are appalling. All too often junior reporters tell me: “Oh somebody else in the office knocks my copy into shape, so this is unrealistic.”

There is anger, even indignation, on some faces when I return their mock interviews and speeches with failure written across the top – and not narrow failure but marks as low as 25 per cent when 60 per cent is needed for a pass.

A few learn a lot of lessons in three days and come out better prepared for the actual examination. On average, about 65 per cent of delegates who attend my refresher courses pass, but that dropped this time to 55 per cent.

Failure in many cases is down to inadequate intro writing, poor story structure, weak shorthand and an inability to apply the law in a working situation. I am sure the examiners’ report will confirm this.

I hope the NCTJ maintain their current standards and are not tempted under pressure to weaken the examination.

Will lessons be learned? I doubt it. The industry is to blame.

David Scott runs his own editorial training company and newspaper consultancy. His next National Certificate refresher course is on September 6, 7 and 8. He can be contacted on 01803 293021 or by e-mail at: [email protected]

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