The Express & Star and Shropshire Star newspaper group in the Midlands is to relaunch its company editorial training scheme.

The NCTJ-accredited course was suspended for a year while the group carried out a restructuring and rationalisation programme.

It is to start again in October with paid training places for ten trainee reporters.

Group editorial training manager Crispin Clark said that the scheme was one of only a handful of company editorial training schemes to survive.

He said: “Most newspaper groups now recruit directly from colleges, universities and commercial schemes.

"But our group has always made training a priority and we prefer to take on our own raw recruits and train them ourselves to the NCTJ standard before they join our newspapers.

"It is one of the few opportunities left for budding reporters to get paid-for training rather than having to pay their own way through a college or university."

Further information is available from Crispin Clark at the MNA Training Department, Express & Star, Queen Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1ES or by emailing c.clark@expressandstar.co.uk