Three UCLan graduates awarded places on a prestigious training scheme at The Sun newspaper have now all been given permanent jobs on the paper.

Andrew Ewart, Mark Hudson and Dean Scoggins will work as Sub Editors for The Sun Newspaper after completing nine months of vigorous training that was delivered by the Press Association (PA).

Mark and Andrew will work on the Sun news desk and Dean Scoggins on the newspaperís sports desk. They all spent time at the PA and at regional newspapers across the country as well as at the Sun newspaper itself.

Mark Hudson said: ìI was jubilant when I was offered the job. Throughout the training the tutors were top notch and the scheme allowed me to be trained on a one to one basis by some of the best journalists in the country.î

The training was an intensive process but Mark says it has made a massive difference to his journalism skills.

ìI have improved so much that something which may have taken me two hours before now takes 10 minutes because of a number of skills have become second nature. I would recommend the scheme to anyone and it could lead to a job on a national newspaper years before most people get the chance.î

Dean said: ìWe had a goal of getting unchanged work and headlines into the paper and when we began to achieve this we knew we were making good progress.î

Jim Holgate, The Sunís Associate Night Editor, ran the training programme and said the traineesí progress has been impressive.

Potential

ìTheir journey so far has been meteoric – but as I explained to them when offering the jobs, it has only just begun. At the end of the training we have very willing, committed and dedicated recruits who still have a long way to go but have certainly shown their potential and usefulness.

ìOn The Sun, more than any other paper, the emphasis is on telling it straight – I call it ‘pure subbing’. No unnecessary frills and just getting straight to the point. This was the constant message to the trainees and, by and large, they picked it up very well.î

Dean is glad his hard work has paid off and said he looking forward to starting his new job.

ìThe pressure of working in a national newspaper environment, less than six months after leaving university, was intense to begin with but when we went out to regional papers we could recognise how much we had improved by being in this environment.

ìNow that I have moved over to sport I’m in the field that I love and all the hard graft of the last eight months has paid off.î

Mark added: ìIt is a buzz to work at The Sun, you never know what is going to happen and I love coming into work everyday.î

Jim also praised the training all three students had received from the UCLan Journalism department.

He added: ìThe three UCLan candidates were a pleasure to train and their performance speaks volumes for the lecturers and the quality of the subbing course. Along with the other trainees, Dean, Mark and Andrew bonded wonderfully and by the end of the programme were like one big happy family.î

More info
BA (Hons) Journalism
PGDip Newspaper Journalism
The Sun
The Press Association

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