Two regional newspapers have teamed up with a university in a pioneering journalism training scheme.

The Hull Daily Mail and the Lincolnshire Echo are offering on-the-job training and fast-track apprenticeships to students taking a three-year degree course at the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside.

The Mail plans to recruit three would-be journalists a year as Scholars. The candidates, who must have lived in the paper’s circulation area for at least 10 years, will spend at least 50 days a year working in the newsroom. After their courses – during which they can work towards an NVQ Level 4 in journalism -they are guaranteed work as trainee reporters on a 12-month track to senior status, compared with the usual 18-24 months.

The Echo is also keen to recruit locally and is inviting readers to apply for a single place on the Scholars scheme. It says that after successfully completing the degree course and working for one day a week at the paper, the Scholar would be considered for a year-long contract as a trainee reporter.

Echo assistant editor Richard Bowyer said: “We are very keen to train and employ local people who want to write about the community they have grown up in.”

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