A group of web-savvy trainee journalists are sitting a new exam in online and video journalism today.

Five fast-track students at Up To Speed Journalism Training in Poole are the first in the country to do so.

The professional exam covers the core skills needed to become an effective online journalist including how to obtain, write, edit and publish online text-based news stories, writing and publishing for other platforms – including SMS messages, news tickers and e-mail bulletins and creating video and audio packages and publishing them online.

The journalists in Dorset will have to show they can adapt traditional print stories for the web and each student will also submit a video news feature.

In the past two weeks they have filmed and edited eight video reports including pieces on the closure of a Poole sports centre, the cancellation of the Amy Winehouse tour, the arrival of the new freighter in the port, and a Bournemouth boy’s debut in Hollywood movies. Their work is being uploaded to a video section of the course website www.poolepeople.co.uk

Nine other centres will follow suit with the National Council for the Training of Journalists–accredited course next year. They are Cornwall College, Darlington College, Harlow College, Leeds Trinity and All Saints, News Associates/Sportsbeat, Press Association Training, The Journalist Works in Brighton, University of Brighton and the University of Staffordshire.

The development follows successful trials of the qualification at the Newbury Weekly News, Lancashire Evening Post and Bournemouth University earlier this year.

Course director Tom Hill said: “We are proud to be the first centre in the country producing reporters with this new NCTJ qualification, showing they have both the traditional skills of the print journalist and the ability to write, film and edit for the web.”

The NCTJ’s chief examiner for online journalism, Lloyd Bracey, explained: “The certificate has been devised after extensive consultation with the industry, so it helps journalists know what they need to know and shows employers that journalists understand.

“It’s still early days in the great newspaper rush to use multi-media on their websites. No one’s sure how – or even IF – it will settle down, but there are already some ‘givens’ – skills the journalist must have – and this qualification covers some of those key competences.”