NCTJ course was “one of the best career decisions I’ve ever made” says motorsport features editor

Steven English is the features editor for Autosport.com – the most popular independent motorsport website in the world with 1.5 million unique users per month.

He joined Autosport publisher Haymarket – the largest privately-owned UK publishing house with more than 200 magazines and websites – during his final year of university in 2005. He served as a section editor on Autosport magazine before switching to the website in 2008.

Steven is a former winner of the prestigious Renault/MSA Young Journalist of the Year award, and has served as a correspondent for Autosport in several fields including Formula 1. His work has appeared in motor racing publications around the world including McLaren’s F1 magazine Racing Line, American magazine Racer and Australian Auto Action.

Steven studied at Darlington College and is full of praise for the knowledge and skills the experience gave him:
“My NCTJ course was frankly brilliant. The decision to take it remains one of the best career decisions I’ve ever made a decade later.” Steven says of his training.
“The things I learned in nine months are still serving me well in my career 10 years later. The base knowledge of media law, in particular, is something I have relied on regularly. Shorthand is another vital asset, especially in the fast-moving world of online journalism.”
Steven is particularly positive about the practical nature of his NCTJ training and found the skills he learnt were highly valued by employers.

He commented: “I studied journalism through both the standalone NCTJ course and through an undergraduate degree, and found the directness of the NCTJ course to be fantastic. There are no gaps in a syllabus being filled up by irrelevant social/cultural studies, it is just straight to the point of teaching you what you need to know to begin life as a working journalist.”
“As far as I know, you can’t get from nought to fully-qualified, capable, employable journalist in so little time anywhere else.”