Trainee reporters and journalism students have praised a new remote exam system which allowed them to take shorthand tests at home.

The National Council for the Training of Journalists ran a total of 252 remote shorthand exams, involving 21 training centres, last Thursday and Friday.

The NCTJ has made use of “cutting-edge secure proctoring technology” – a piece of software which monitors candidates sitting exams remotely to ensure they don’t cheat – since last month to allow students and trainee reporters affected by the coronavirus to continue with their studies.

In total, 887 exams have now been sat using the technology.

McKenzie Williams, a Facebook-funded community reporter who works for JPIMedia in Yorkshire, sat the 60wpm shorthand exam from home.

Sheffield College student McKenzie, pictured, said: “I have a four-year-old daughter so sitting the exams was quite hard. It was hard to find the time to revise at home and to have peace and quiet to be able to sit the exams due to juggling with child care and deadlines.

“However, the exams were done in a professional way and the instructions were simple and explained clearly to us all which made it all so much easier.

“Being able to sit exams remotely was a positive experience as we have prepared for the exams across months with training provided to us at a high level.

“If the exams were to be postponed I don’t think I would have agreed, as we were all looking forward to completing the exams and earning our qualification.

“I believe being offered to sit the exams remotely was the best thing NCTJ could have done. The overall running of the exams and the system we used to complete them worked well all around.”

Callum Warren, a student on the NCTJ-accredited MA Journalism course at Ulster University, added: “I think it’s great that the NCTJ has offered this option. It has allowed myself and others a chance to catch up on our courses before we finish in September.

“The Proctorio software was fairly simple to set up and the software operated as expected.

“I’ve completed my first set of exams so that’s a success in my eyes. I’d like to see this system stay as an option – with Proctorio there’s no excuse for everybody not to be able to sit their exams.”

News Associates student Harry Jones was among the first cohort to sit an exam under the conditions on 13 May.

He said: “I was extremely relieved when I was told that the NCTJ would offer remote exams.

“With shorthand and content-heavy modules such as public affairs, myself and my course mates were extremely worried that we’d struggle to maintain our knowledge of the subjects while we waited to sit the exams, so to be able to sit them on the original dates was really fantastic.

“The speed at which the NCTJ were able to secure and trial the software was unexpected and truly impressive.”