The National Council for the Training of Journalist’s annual Awards for Excellence in Journalism are now open for entries with a brand new award to celebrate student publications.

The awards recognise and reward the best journalism students completing NCTJ-accredited courses, as well as reporters and photographers with less than two years’ experience on the job.

There are five main categories, each with an award for students and one for trainees.

They are news journalism; sports journalism; top scoop/exclusive; features of the year; and images of the year.

In addition, for the first time there is the opportunity to enter the student publication of the year category.

This award is for the best student online or print publication submitted by accredited course providers and judges will be looking for innovative and original ideas, quality content and design, student involvement and reader/user engagement.

The entry form is available to download from the NCTJ website along with submission guidelines and competition rules.

All work entered must have been produced during the period 1 September 2011 to 31 August 2012.

All awards will be presented at this year’s Journalism Skills Conference in the autumn.  Visit www.nctj.com/awards/awards-for-excellence for more information.