Geordie Greig: NCTJ training was "a bedrock"

Picture: Geordie Greig, editor of the London Evening Standard.

Geordie Greig, editor of the London Evening Standard, is the NCTJ-trained journalist to feature on the charity’s alumni webpage this month.

Geordie gained his NCTJ proficiency certificate as a reporter on the South East London and Kentish Mercury.

In his preliminary exams he gained 100wpm in shorthand and a credit in the media law exam and he passed the proficiency test, which has now evolved into the NCE, at the first attempt.

Armed with his NCTJ qualification, Geordie then worked for the Daily Mail, Sunday Today and Sunday Times, before being appointed editor of Tatler magazine in 1999. Ten years later he took up the post of editor of the London Evening Standard. He is also editorial director at the Independent and Independent on Sunday.

Geordie Greig said: “NCTJ training was a bedrock for everything I have done in journalism. “

It gave me a foundation in the basics of reporting which is what every job I have ever done boils down to: finding interesting people and the interesting things that they say.

“The training in shorthand, libel law, local authorities and court reporting are all things I learnt about in my training which are still of use every day.”

Geordie will be featured on the National Council for the Training of Journalists’ webpage throughout June.

The idea for an alumni campaign first surfaced at the NCTJ Student Council 2010, held in February, when students informed NCTJ staff that the value of NCTJ qualifications to working journalists needed to be highlighted.

Kay Burley of Sky News featured on the page in May and a different NCTJ-trained journalist will feature on the page each month as part of an ongoing campaign to promote NCTJ-accredited journalism training courses.