The popularity of shorthand appears to be on the up as the number of students sitting exams at the start of the current academic year almost doubled.

Between September and December 2008, 736 exams were sat compared to the 403 between the same dates the previous year.

The figures relate to all exam speeds, from 60wpm through to 120wpm, at National Council for the Training of Journalists-approved centres across the UK.

The number of people sitting at 60wpm trebled from 49 to 153; 70wpm increased twelve-fold, from eight to 98; at 80wpm numbers almost doubled from 83 to 162; and those sitting at 100wpm increased from 225 to 278.

Despite some industry fears that it is a declining skill, the overall percentage of students passing exams also increased, with pass rates at 60, 70 and 100wpm all higher in 2008 than in 2007.

Marie Cartwright, NCTJ chief examiner for shorthand, said take-up of the 60, 70 and 80wpm exams had been particularly high at the start of the 2008-9 academic year.

She said: “This could be because fast-track courses starting in September each year would enter students for 60, 70, 80wpm in December then work towards the 80, 90, and 100wpm exams at the end of their course in January/February.

“Achieving the industry standard of 80wpm for those on magazine courses and 100wpm for newspaper journalism students is a tough test, but these figures show that those who put in the work can, and do, achieve well.”

Comments

grecian9 (28/01/2009 20:43:28)
Marie – the best shorthand teacher in the world, in fact the best teacher in the world full stop. Just a shame there’s no trainee jobs for all those journalism students to apply for.

grecian9 (28/01/2009 20:43:30)
Marie – the best shorthand teacher in the world, in fact the best teacher in the world full stop. Just a shame there’s no trainee jobs for all those journalism students to apply for.