A four-week journalism summer school is being set up by a training centre to give would-be reporters a taste of life in the world of the media.

The idea is to help candidates make up their minds if journalism is really for them - before they splash out time and money on a vocational training course.

The full-time course, which will include detailed training in news and feature writing, researching and interviewing, law and ethics affecting the media, will run at The Media Training Centre in Worcester.

It will also offer on-screen publication design with Photoshop/QuarkXPress, and is being organised to provide preparation for graduate fast-track courses. It could even lead directly to employment in journalism in some cases.

Terry Wardle at the Centre said: "Every year many young graduates fight their way into journalism at considerable cost in time and money only to find, for a variety of reasons, that it is not the career for them after all.

"To help avoid these expensive mistakes we have introduced a four-week journalism summer school during August as a realistic taster to help students determine that this is really the job for them before they embark on a one-year training course."

It will cost £250 but anyone aged 19 or over can be grant-aided with an Individual Learning Account to cover all but £50 of the fee. The course fee will be refunded for anyone going on to take the Centre's career-entry course.

More details on the summer school, which runs from August 6 to 31, can be obtained by calling The Media Training Centre on 01905 610678.

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