Five others were shortlisted for the award – Tom Bennett, who was also snapped up by the Mercury, Matt Davies, Ed O'Mara, Stuart Turner and Andrea Hyam. They have all won jobs weeks before the course finishes at the end of June.

"We have an almost 100 per cent success rate in getting students into newspapers,” says John.

"I believe a lot of this is down to the students doing months of real-world reporting while they're on the course covering their own patch in the city and producing news pages in Quark Xpress every week.

"The ability to go out and dig up a good story from nothing is what separates good journalists from all the rest. Newspapers are the mouthpieces of their communities, so knowing who to talk to and how to talk to them is absolutely crucial."

Mercury deputy news editor Chris Johnston, who talked to the students about the importance of off-diary reporting and presented the awards, said: "We believe in eyes and ears journalism is the key to making great papers even better and that's why we're proud to sponsor this award for the second consecutive year.”

Johnston Press, the country's fourth biggest newspaper group, also sponsored an award. Rowen West-Henzell won the One To Watch Award. The other five nominees were Helen Thomas, Joel Turner, Jamie Dunkley, Sian Davies and Paul Cottam.

Rowen West-Henzell