A council aimed at fostering better links between journalism students and the National Council for the Training of Journalists is to become an annual event.

Twelve months ago editors, industry bigwigs and NCTJ training chiefs met in Manchester with student representatives from colleges across the UK to discover what was and was not working on journalism courses.

After the success of that inaugural meeting, the NCTJ has announced it will become a regular on its calendar.

The second student council meeting took place on Friday at Bloomberg, in London.

Two one-day workshops are being held this month for tutors. They are: news writing on 20 February at Leicester de Montfort University and public admin marking on 27 February at Liverpool Community College.

The seminar will offer guidance on course delivery and assessment as well as give tutors the chance to exchange ideas and discuss any issues.

Owing to demand, a fourth three-day refresher course has been organised to help students preparing for the National Certificate Examination on 6 March.

The refresher will cover all exam papers and the logbook. It takes place on 24, 25 and 26 February at a venue to be decided.

Students working toward their preliminary Certificate in Journalism in office or via distance learning can sit the following exams: sports journalism on 11 May, news writing on 12 May, local and central government 13 May, media law: court reporting and general reporting on 14 May and sub-editing on 15 May.

Enrolment forms are available at nctj.com and the deadline to apply is 10 April.

The annual shorthand seminar takes place on 5 June and is aimed at anyone involved in journalism education with an involvement in shorthand.

The seminar will bring delegates up-to-date with key issues and developments in shorthand training.

More information on this event will be available nearer the time on the NCTJ website.

Students re-sitting the media law and public affairs exams will no longer have their grades capped at 50pc. The change brings the marking guidelines for these exams in line with all other NCTJ preliminary exams except shorthand.

Following the addition of videojournalism to NCTJ syllabuses, a three-day practical training course will be held to help prepare centres with teaching. Date and venue to be confirmed.