More than 70pc of employers who took part in the research said there was a lack of so-called 'core skills' as more training courses opt for multimedia lessons as part of the curriculum.

The findings were published at the Society of Editors conference today as three major training bodies announced a new partnership to develop journalism training for the digital media age.

Representatives of the National Council for the Training of Journalists, the Broadcasting Journalism Training Council and the Periodicals Training Council are to establish a joint council to identify training requirements designed to satisfy employers across all three sectors.

Donald Martin, editor of Glasgow's Evening Times and NCTJ board member, revealed the survey findings at the SoE conference today as employers and educators debated where the future lay for trainees.

The survey, carried out in September and October, canvassed the opinions of 217 media employers, including print, online and broadcast, and 50 training course providers.

Mr Martin told delegates: "We aim to ensure that training providers match expectations and requirements of a fast-changing industry.

"Seventy-one per cent of employers reported a skills gap, 64pc said there was a gap in finding stories.

"These findings are bound to spark important debate on how are trainees to be trained to deal with convergence.

"Our mission is quality training but we must be realistic and get the right balance of traditional and new skills."

Employers highlighted through the survey skills gaps in six key areas of journalism - finding stories, use of language, writing, media law, shorthand and news gathering.

They also highlighted gaps in 'new skills' such as video recording/editing and writing for multilple news platforms.

Mr Martin added: "What the survey is showing is that people are looking for new entrants to have significant skills.

"Our demands are changing and it is very difficult for people. What we're looking to do through the NCTJ is to shape the training in colleges.

"The message that has come out of the findings is that core skills are absolutely key and then there's new skills which we need to add. The question is how we do that.

"Shorthand takes a lot of time but the survey said employers want shorthand to remain."

During a Q&A session, one delegate claimed that there were 756 courses in the UK with the word 'journalism' in the title while others said classes focussed on general media studies in the place of shorthand.

Further analysis of the results will be discussed at the NCTJ's Journalism Skills Conference in Manchester next month.