NCTJ Awards for Excellence sponsored by NFL UK open for entries

The NCTJ Awards for Excellence sponsored by NFL UK are open for entries from students and trainee journalists across the UK.

The awards recognise and reward the best journalism students completing NCTJ-accredited courses and journalists/photographers with less than two years’ experience on the job.

The student categories are:

news journalism
sports journalism
top scoop/exclusive
features of the year
images of the year
multimedia story/campaign of the year
student publication of the year

The trainee categories are:

news journalism
sports journalism
top scoop/exclusive
features of the year
images of the year
multimedia story/campaign of the year

There are also two performance awards: the student journalist of the year, awarded to the best-performing student based on preliminary exam results and references, and trainee journalist of the year, awarded to the best-performing trainee in the National Qualification in Journalism (reporters, photographers, sports reporters). There is no call for entries for these two awards, as they are based on exam results.

Finally, nominations are welcome for the NCTJ chairman’s award, which recognises an individual’s outstanding contribution to high standards of journalism training. Nominations are invited, in no more than 500 words, why the individual is worthy of this award. He or she could be an editor, a tutor or anyone who has made a meaningful impact on the training of journalists. Previous recipients have been David Kett, David Rowell, Amanda Ball, Walter Greenwood, Jon Smith and Cathy Duncan.

The winners will be invited to the Journalism Skills Conference gala dinner and awards ceremony on Thursday, 27 November as guests of the NCTJ and NFL UK.

David Tossell, director of European public affairs for NFL International, said: “We are looking forward to being involved as a sponsor this year. I’m sure the awards will continue to attract high-quality submissions – we wish all applicants the best of luck.”

Students and trainees can enter via the student login section of the NCTJ website or by post and all submissions are free of charge. Work entered must have been produced during the period 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2014.

All entries should be sent to the NCTJ at any time before 5pm on Friday, 19 September 2014. Full details of submission guidelines and competition rules are available on our website.