Media outlets receive many requests from young people wanting an internship but they are not structured or formal programmes. Our partner, BIRN created a four-month training programme for twelve trainees.
In response, we invited students, graduates and young journalists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia to apply for the first round of a four-month traineeship programme.
After a set of intensive two- week training sessions with a senior BIRN editor, who taught the trainees a range of skills and techniques they would need to work in a busy media outlet, they were introduced to their mentors.
After the training, they were introduced to their mentors, journalists and editors, and became full-time members of staff of selected host media. Over the course of the programme, trainees learned about pitching stories, interviewing techniques, factchecking, editing and other practical skills. As a result, 12 trainees produced over 300 different journalistic pieces from December 2020 until February 2021.
Creating the next generation of journalists
The Media for All Traineeship Programme for Young Journalists proved to be very successful. Three of the 12 trainees were offered jobs with the host media outlets after completing the programme. Four trainees were also offered temporary contracts at BIRN. One former trainee now has her own show at TV Vijesti in Montenegro.
Four of the participants from the first group have also had their feature stories published at the Balkan Insight, BIRN’s flagship English language website which provides news, investigations and insights into key issues in Southern and Eastern Europe. You can read their articles here, here, here and here.
