The Press Association has teamed up with a media training centre to launch a new degree dedicated to press photography.

PA has been working alongside the East Coast Media Centre, in Grimsby, to develop the press-specific two-year foundation course which starts in September.

PA staff will deliver training on a regular basis alongside industry-experienced tutors at the centre which is part of the Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education.

The course will cover essential skills for photographers in a 21st century newsroom including video production, digital processing and how to operate on a picture desk.

Practical photography skills will also be taught alongside traditional subjects such as newspaper practice, media law and public affairs.

There are 14 places on the course but this may be extended if the centre receives enough applications and there is also compulsory work experience.

PA will set real assignments for pupils rather than mock exercises meaning that students’ photos could be used by the Press Association and appear in print or online.

Multimedia course co-ordinator John Duncan said: “The course is very practically based.

“I believe it’s the first foundation degree of its kind and certainly the first that PA has been heavily involved in.”

PA’s group picture editor Martin Keene said: “The Press Association is delighted to be working with the institute’s East Coast Media to help deliver a course that we hope will ensure that the next generation of press photographer will be better equipped than ever before with the skills that they need for a successful career in this rapidly evolving industry.”

Course coordinator Jez Goffin added that the degree was designed to meet the needs of a diverse range of applicants.

Comments

Mikel Patowitz (18/06/2008 14:35:03)
This is a great idea.
Maybe Grimsby Institute could offer Doctorates in going through people’s bins too?

Snapper Boy (19/06/2008 21:34:10)
Am I the only one who thinks this might be a way of PA getting 14 Press Photographers on the cheap.

photographer (21/06/2008 01:54:23)
One has to wonder what the motivation is for a commercial organisation to invest in such a venture. PA are a business like any other, I feel the line, “students’ photos could be used by the Press Association and appear in print or online”, could hint at the groups real motivations; a source of cheap labour they can exploit for a year or two following ‘graduation’. One has to wonder whose interesting The PA are really looking out for. Maybe I am wrong and The PA have just come over all Philanthropic but it seems somewhat unlikely. A word of advice to any determined press photographers, avoid these courses like the plague. Take some pictures, get a job on a local paper and work your way up.

Vladimir BAZAN (25/06/2008 19:35:17)
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? ?????????, Vladimir BAZAN
I live in Belarus. My name is Vladimir Bazan. I the newspaper photographer. I had a newspaper ” the Vitebsk courier “. The newspaper lived 17 years. Lukashenko has closed the newspaper. I wish to leave for other country.I send my photos.
Yours faithfully, Vladimir BAZAN