The group has recruited a school leaver to become an apprentice journalist instead of going to university to study for a degree.
Hayley Anderson, 19, joined the editorial team in Ilford to receive on-the-job training while attending specialised courses in journalism, media law and ethics at Lambeth College for one day a week.
She will train for two years on the Essex and east London newspapers and websites newspapers group, working across the print and digital operations, and also gain experience on the company’s London24 website.
The government-backed scheme is the first of its kind and will be run in conjunction with the National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Archant London editorial director, Laura Adams, said: “We are pleased to be the first weekly newspaper group to support this NCTJ scheme that gives a unique opportunity for someone like Hayley to enter journalism.
Malcolm Starbrook, editor-in-chief said: “The NCTJ is to be congratulated. It has created this scheme which will allow those with the fire in the belly for journalism, the chance to fulfil their dreams without having to go to university first.
“I believe our scheme will provide a fantastic opportunity for an individual to kick-start a career in regional newspapers, but it will also allow editors to recruit local people and ensure they reflect the social and ethnic mix of the communities we serve.”
Hayley Anderson said: “I initially applied for this apprenticeship because I always knew that I wanted to be a journalist and this felt like such an amazing opportunity and a real first step into my dream job.
At the same time I was accepted into university but when I heard that I got offered a place here, there wasn’t really any way that I could turn it down.
I think that the apprenticeship can offer me more than university, because it lets me learn everything I need to know without all the extra hassle of writing pointless essays and getting myself into loads of debt.
More than anything, working here is going to give me the necessary experience I need and an NCTJ qualification which I would have had to pay thousands of pounds for if I did decided to go university.
From this, I hope to achieve a really good understanding of what it is to be a journalist and so far I think that I’m already learning something new everyday.
These first few weeks have been better than what I actually expected, as I’ve wrote so much more than I thought I would. I think I made the right decision about choosing this over university as it has just confirmed that this is the career that I want.”
