The Duke of York is to join regional newspaper editors at the Society of Editors regional conference next month, HTFP can announce today.

Organised by the SoE and sponsored by HTFP, the April 7 conference entitled ‘Turning of the Tide’ will focus on positive developments taking place within the industry

Prince Andrew will attend the gathering in order to support the campaign for more apprenticeships.

His Royal Highness is a patron of the London Evening Standard’s Ladder for London Campaign which has created more than 1,300 apprenticeships for young people since its introduction in September 2012 and with similar initiative since rolled out across a number of regional titles.

The Prince has been vocal in his support for vocational training claiming that more opportunities are in need of being opened up across the country to provide jobs that the workplace requires.

He will be joined at the conference by apprentices from the Standard and Joanne Butcher, chief executive of the National Council for the Training of Journalists, in a bid to continue to persuade more regional editors to launch their own apprenticeships campaigns.

SoE executive director Bob Satchwell said:  “After the success of the Evening Standard’s campaign, similar apprenticeship schemes are now running in Leeds, Kent, Darlington, Cambridge, Northern Ireland and Swindon.

“We look forward to hearing The Duke of York’s thoughts on how the local and regional newspaper industry can help to create trainee positions for youngsters and to help the unemployed into work.”

The one-day seminar will take place at the Forest of Arden Hotel in the West Midlands. Attendance at the event is priced at £55 +VAT for a day delegate and £165 +VAT for overnight accommodation on Sunday, dinner and Monday attendance at the seminar.

Other speakers will include Tony Jaffa from Foot Anstey, Doug Wills, Managing Editor of the Independent titles, Alison Gow, head of Trinity Mirror’s new digital and content innovation team and HTFP blogger Steve Dyson, who is the guest speaker for the Sunday evening dinner on April 6 which will precede the conference.

They will be joined by the Liverpool Echo editor Alastair Machray, Jenny Eastwood from Gloucester, Jeremy Clifford of Yorkshire Post Newspapers, Ian Murray, editor of the Southern Daily Echo, Neil Benson of Trinity Mirror and Mark Waldron of The News, Portsmouth.

To book your place, email [email protected]