USQ and APN initiative to assist working journalists

Employees within Australian Provincial Newspapers (APN) are being given access to journalism training following an agreement between APN and the USQ.

In what has been heralded as an innovative move in journalism education, USQ has tailored a Program consisting of four technically enhanced courses for APN employees who are seeking a ‘crash course' in journalism.

'The four courses are designed for people working within the media in APN and will be compacted into less than a years study,' USQ Print Journalism lecturer and writer and examiner for the Program Dr Janine Little said.

'APN were looking for open-mindedness, an enthusiasm for writing as well as reporting, and a university willing to cater for their need to provide ongoing educational support for employees alongside their in-house training program and Readers First readership development program.'

The Program is also thought to be the first of its kind to be offered by any university in Queensland and attracted a $20,000 grant from the USQ Vice-chancellor's Strategic Development Fund in 2006 to assist research and development costs for the Program.

Students complete the courses online, with innovation and imagination central to the success of the Program according to USQ Learning and Teaching Enhancement Senior Lecturer, Program Designer and Moderator Michael Sankey.

'We have used an innovative mix of technologies to pull together what can only be considered a cutting edge approach to this form of program delivery,' he said.

'The combination of a traditional web based environment, the latest Wiki technology and USQ's own Integrated Content Environment (ICE) system has allowed us to utilise the best of each world to provide students not only with innovative content but with a dynamic and interactive study environment.'

APN Executive Editor (Australia) Peter Owen said that interest had been strong in the Program and added that it would help the company retain staff.

'Currently we have received funding for 15 places and already 12 have been filled with those people having started the Program,' Mr Owen said.

'We have Newspapers all across Queensland, with many in regional areas where we do have difficulty in keeping staff, so there is a kind of revolving door.

'With this program we hope to train people that are committed to their area and are working for APN such as advertising staff and photographers so that they can improve their skills as journalists while they work.'

Media Contact: Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 1628, 0403 643 192