Hear Natalie's experience of ITV's News Traineeship

In 2017 why not join the most commercially successful news operation in the UK with our News Traineeship? ITV News is offering you the opportunity to join our national and regional news teams as a trainee journalist learning all the skills you need to work in one of our multi-media newsrooms. The challenge is big and will demand the very best of you. You will need to demonstrate a commitment to journalism, have story ideas and be ambitious.

This is a nine-month programme starting on Monday 2nd October 2017 and we are looking for 12 talented recruits, seven of whom will work in one of our English Regional newsrooms in ITV Anglia (Norwich); ITV Central (Birmingham); ITV Granada (Media City, Salford); ITV Meridian (Whiteley, near Southampton); ITV Tyne Tees & Border (Gateshead); ITV West Country (Bristol); or ITV Yorkshire (Leeds). Two trainees will be based in our national newsrooms one for ITV Cymru Wales in Cardiff and the other for UTV in Belfast. Two trainees will be working in our Network newsroom based in London, and in addition, we have an opportunity for one trainee at ITV Channel (St Helier).

You’ll receive a salary of £22,394 for all roles outside of London (£24,000 in London) and five weeks annual leave pro-rata’d during the scheme. A very high percentage of those who graduate from the programme have gone on to secure permanent jobs with both ITV News and ITV more widely, although there are no guarantees of continued employment beyond the 9 months.

Here is one trainee journalist’s experience of the programme:

Natalie Morris: Production Journalist, ITV London

My time as a trainee was an incredible foundation for working in a newsroom. As one of the two ITN trainees for 2015/16 I was given a crash-course in news and fully immersed in the processes of creating live, daily bulletins and programmes. In just nine months I spent time with the online team, the news desk, the foreign desk, the output team - basically every area you can think of. On top of that we received training from the very best in the business; from shooting and editing to generating story ideas and scriptwriting. It was a whirlwind. At times I felt like there was too much to learn - but after a few months everything started to fit into place and I could feel myself progressing really quickly.

After 9 months of training I applied for a role as a Production Journalist for ITV London and was given a contract. This is when I really felt that all my training had paid off. That settling-in time at the beginning of a new job where you have to learn everything from scratch was essentially eliminated - I was able to walk in on my first day knowing what was expected of me and feeling confident.

The team at ITV London have been incredibly welcoming and have continued to show their trust in my ability by giving me more and more responsibility. I now produce lunchtime and late bulletins, work on the weekend programmes, self-shoot whenever it's needed and regularly interview guests and celebrities live on Facebook. This in-at-the-deep-end philosophy has helped to build my confidence quickly and make me feel like I'm really part of the team.

The best thing about my role as a Production Journalist is the variety. You're never just tied to the production desk. As well as working on the programme and working with the planning team, there are opportunities to get out with a camera, suggest original stories and really develop a wide-ranging skillset. One of my highlights has to be presenting a Facebook Live from Trafalgar Square at the Olympic Heroes Return event - which generated over 100,000 views and interaction from all over the world.

The application deadline is 26th February, 2017.

If you would like more information on the programme and how to apply, please click here.

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