Students and trainee journalists from all across the UK are currently being encouraged to enter the National Council for the Training of Journalists  excellence awards.

The annual awards reward and recognise the very best journalism students completing NCTJ-accredited courses, along with journalists and photographers with less than two years’ experience on the job.

Categories include news journalism, sports journalism, top scoop/exclusive, features of the year, images of the year and multimedia story/campaign of the year.

The winners will be announced at this year’s Journalism Skills Conference in Sheffield in November.

There will also be two performance awards: the Student Journalist of the Year, awarded to the best-performing student based on preliminary exam results and references, and Trainee Journalist of the Year, awarded to the best-performing trainee in the National Qualification in Journalism.

Entries are also being requested for the NCTJ chairman’s award, recognizing an individual’s outstanding contribution to high standards of journalism training.

Nominations are invited, in no more than 500 words, as to why the individual is worthy of this award.

He or she could be an editor, a tutor, or anyone who has made a meaningful impact on the training of journalists.

Previous recipients have included David Kett, David Rowell, Amanda Ball, Walter Greenwood, Jon Smith, and Cathy Duncan.

Trainees and students can enter the NCTJ excellence awards via the student login section of the NCTJ website, or by post, and all submissions are free of charge.

Submitted enteries must have been produced during the period September 1, 2013, to August 31, 2014. The closing date for entries is 5pm on Friday, September 19, 2014.

The awards are sponsored by the American football league NFL UK.