NCTJ Training · RQF Level 3
NCTJ Level 3 Certificate in Foundation Journalism
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 3
- Total credits25
- Guided learning150 hours
- Units in this qualification18
Awarded by NCTJ Training · on the Ofqual register
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See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to
What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
The NCTJ Level 3 Certificate in Foundation Journalism is a vocationally-related qualification. It focuses on developing core journalism skills, such as gathering information and telling news stories. Learners will also learn feature writing and how to use audio and images for publication in the media and communication sector.
These are the units NCTJ Training registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Community Radio NewsgatheringReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Use community radio broadcasts to build contacts and find news stories
- Create a community news bulletin that is accurate and engaging
- Control a news-based studio discussion, ensuring all voices are heard and the discussion remains focused
- Understand how to broadcast live on-air from the studio or a remote location, adhering to best practice
- Understand the rules and regulations under which community radio stations broadcast news, including Ofcom guidelines
Feature writingReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Identify suitable subjects for feature articles
- Write feature articles for impact and attention on two different topics
Finding and using dataReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Find data from a range of sources, including official statistics, research reports, and public records
- Access data from a range of sources, understanding the different formats and access requirements
- Interpret data gathered, identifying trends, patterns, and anomalies
- Demonstrate how to use data effectively in journalistic storytelling, ensuring accuracy and clarity
- Use graphics and illustrations drawn from the data to help readers understand the story, presenting information visually
Gathering InformationReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Research stories suitable for publication
- Research stories ensuring accuracy of information
- Identify dangers of internet research
- Understand the principles of what makes a good interview
- Interview people to gain facts and opinions
How society worksReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Explain the roles and responsibilities of government structures in supporting society in the UK.
How to tell a news storyReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Produce an accurate news story suitable for publication
How to use the English Language for JournalismReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Demonstrate the ability to write English in a clear and direct manner suitable for journalistic purposes.
- Demonstrate the ability to use correct spelling, punctuation and grammar when writing English for journalistic content.
- Demonstrate the ability to communicate information in a clear, direct and grammatically correct manner.
Legal and ethical considerations for journalistsReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Understand what is meant by libel and slander, and how to avoid them in journalistic practice
- Understand how the law of copyright works, and how it affects the use of copyrighted material in journalism
- Understand how privacy laws can affect a journalist’s work, including the right to privacy and data protection
- Understand the contempt of court laws and how they affect the work of a journalist, including reporting restrictions
- Know what to do if legal problems arise in journalistic practice, including seeking legal advice
- Understand the difference between legal regulations and codes of conduct in journalism
- Understand where legal regulation applies and who is the regulator, including Ofcom and the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO)
Recording InformationReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the various methods of gathering and recording information, including interviews, observations, and document analysis
- Know the equipment available for recording information, including microphones, recorders, and cameras
- Understand the legal and ethical considerations of using recording equipment for interviews or in other places, including data protection and privacy laws
Reviews and Comment ArticlesReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Review material in a fair and accurate manner, providing balanced and objective assessments
- Comment on material in a fair and accurate manner, offering informed and reasoned opinions
Sports reportingReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the rules and competition formats of major UK sports
- Understand the national governance of major UK sports and how this relates to local, grassroots clubs
- Understand how to prepare to cover a match or event, including research and logistics
- Understand who to interview before a match and event and afterwards, and how to conduct effective interviews
- Compile a match or sports event report, adhering to journalistic principles
- Understand the dangers of defamation in sports reporting and how to avoid it
Taking Images Suitable for PublicationReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Produce images suitable for publication from a range of settings
- Prepare images for publication on a range of platforms
The History of NewsReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how UK newspapers developed over the centuries
- Understand how UK news broadcasting has developed
- Understand how digital news publishing has developed
Using Video to tell a StoryReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Demonstrate the ability to record video footage, including sound, to a usable standard for storytelling purposes.
- Demonstrate the ability to edit video footage effectively to tell a coherent and engaging story.
Using audio to tell a storyReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Record audio to a useable standard
- Edit audio recordings to tell a story
- Make a podcast
Using the English Language for maximum effect in journalismReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Demonstrate the ability to select appropriate words and phrases to convey a powerful and impactful message in journalistic writing.
Writing for a Specific PurposeReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Write for a newsletter, demonstrating appropriate style and content
- Write a press release, adhering to industry standards and conventions
Writing for digital mediaReal unit · NCTJ Training
What you'll be able to do
- Demonstrate the ability to write engaging and informative blog posts.
- Demonstrate the ability to write clear and concise articles for websites.
- Demonstrate the ability to use social media platforms effectively for communication and engagement.
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 3 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- Comply with UK legal and regulatory requirements when working in journalism
- Comply with codes of conduct, regulations and standards when working in journalism
- Write Text
- Write headings for editorial content
Where this can lead
Trainee Media Lawyer
This Trainee Media Lawyer role is the first step on what can be an incredibly exciting and varied career journey. We're looking for someone who's eager to learn, ready to contribute, and passionate about the intersection of law and media. Come build your future with us.
See the whole journey →Showing 6 roles, drawn from 10 job records mapped to this qualification.
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your work in any of these jobs
Learners will acquire skills to gather community news, produce news bulletins, and manage studio discussions for community radio. The unit also covers live broadcasting techniques and regulatory requirements.
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for NCTJ Level 3 Certificate in Foundation Journalism
18 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by NCTJ Training.
- Community Radio Newsgathering
- Feature writing
- Finding and using data
- Gathering Information
- How society works
- How to tell a news story
and 12 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.