Press agency Sportsbeat has been awarded provisional NCTJ accreditation for its full-time newspaper journalism training courses.

The London-based agency, which specialises in sports coverage, began full-time training in its newsroom in March this year, with an intake of 16 trainee journalists.

The decision of the NCTJ’s board in their June meeting followed successful accreditation visits in December and March, during which staff were complimented on their preparations and appointments.

(L-R) managing editor James Toney, executive editor David Parsons, commercial director James Parsons and head of training Richard Parsons (front)

Richard Parsons, head of journalism training at Sportsbeat, said: “We are delighted to be part of the NCTJ family.

“We are very proud of our course and the opportunities it gives our students, many of them have already taken the opportunity to play an active role in our newsroom.

“They are a very enthusiastic bunch – some even volunteered to help our newsdesk through the night at the recent Commonwealth Games – and still made it in for lectures afterwards.

“We now look forward to playing an active role within the organisation to ensure the industry produces the best young journalists to meet the ever-changing demands of news organisations like ourselves.”