Training
Get qualified
Routes into journalism, and sports journalism, are famously varied. There is a wide variety of training options available, from fast-track 20-week programmes to four-year degree courses.
Some are designed simply to make you newsroom-safe, in terms of avoiding libel and getting your knowledge of public affairs up to speed, while others will demand that you delve deeply into the very fabric of sports journalism.
In this section of the SJA website, you will find a list of courses to choose from to help your progress towards a possible career in sports journalism, along with their entry requirements, links to the provider’s website and contact details for admissions. We’ve also included some information about the National Council for the Training of Journalists.
If you’re running a training course that does not appear in our listings, then please e-mail us by clicking here.
Archived advice
We have published a number of articles on this website about training for sports journalism from a range of leading authorities – experienced sports journalists, university lecturers, and professional journalism trainers.
Anyone considering sports journalism as a career is advised to read through these articles:
- How do I become a sports journalist? (Mar 2009) by Keith Elliott, the SJA’s training officer.
- How I became a teenaged internet sports publishing entrepreneur starting with just £100 off my dad’s credit card: James Lorenzo, aged 15, found the best way to get experience as a sports writer was to give himself the opportunity online (Jan 2012).
- Universities to charge £9,000 from 2012 for journalism degree courses – is it worth it? (Sep 2011)
- Guardian Unlimited careers service: webchat on sports journalism (Aug 2011)
- Frankly speaking, sports writing is all about how you feel (Mar 2011) by three-time SJA Regional Sports Writer of the Year Martin Smith, of The Star, Sheffield.
- Kelvin MacKenzie has a point about the ballooning costs of journalism training (Apr 2011) from the Press Gazette Editor’s blog, a look behind the typically controversial comments from the former editor of The Sun.
- First rule of journalism: read and research (Oct 2009)
- A day in the life of a local newspaper reporter (Jan 2011). Not sport, but a good insight into the demands and requirements of someone working in journalism, even after a couple of years’ experience and progress.
- Why vocational courses are rarely just the job (Apr 2009) by Martin Samuel, four times the SJA’s Sports Writer of the Year
- Academic slams “Mickey Mouse” journalism courses (Feb 2010)
- Don’t get caught in the tangled web of interns (May 2010) by Henry Milward, on his experiences as a much-misused sports journalism under-graduate
- What course should I do at A level to become a sports journalist? (Mar 2009) by James Toney, managing editor at News Associates, who run a range of professional training courses
- Unpaid internships stink say SJA experts (May 2010)
- Sir Michael Parkinson: Being a journalist is not just about fame (Apr 2010)
- Hugh McIlvanney provides a degree of advice (Oct 2009)
- What degree of experience do I need? (Mar 2009) by Keith Elliott
- The Questionnaire: Jon Colman the 2007 SJA Regional Sports Journalist of the Year (Mar 2008)
- No subsititute for (work) experience (Aug 2007)
- Your 1 in 500 chance of getting a job as a sports journalist (Mar 2007)
Latest news
Keep a check on the latest news about training and courses for sports journalism, as published on this website, by clicking here.
