A new national qualification for the newspaper industry is to be launched at the Society of Editors conference tomorrow.

The collection of NVQ Level 4 qualifications will cover writing, sub-editing, graphics and press photography.

The qualifications are based on performance standards designed by practising journalists.

They are work-based and assess the skills, knowledge and competences needed to operate across a range of journalist functions.

The Level 4 NVQs in Newspaper Journalism have received accreditation by the regulatory body, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), as part of the National Qualifications Framework.

The launch event, at the Belfast conference, will be followed by a seminar on the new qualifications, which will explain how they work in practice.

The Society of Editor’s annual conference opened yesterday in the Northern Ireland Parliament Building at Stormont with the Society of Editors Lecture given by Ben Bradlee, editor of the Washington Post at the time of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate investigations.

The conference was today due to be addressed by two Cabinet Ministers and during the proceedings SoE president Ed Curran, of the Belfast Telegraph, is due to be succeeded by Liz Page, editor of the Evening Press, York.

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