Leys News

Leys News Training was launched in August 2007.  Funding from Awards for All got us up and running, allowing us to make our pilot training scheme completely free at the point of use.

Our pilot scheme consisted of eight bite-sized modules:

• Design and layout: how to create clear and eye-catching written communications like posters and leaflets


• Digital photography: how to take better-quality pictures and use picture editing software


• Journalism: gathering information for a news story and writing professional-sounding articles


• Selling advertising space: planning and making a sales pitch, generating repeat business


• PR and marketing: developing your organisation's public image


• Branding: finding your organisation's brand and using it to gain visibility and respect


• Communication strategies: identifying your target audience and getting your message across to them


• Internet/websites: the basics of creating a website

Leys News Training is a new kind of training: we shape our training courses around you rather than the other way round. You can help us decide how to go forward. Tell us what you'd like to learn, and how you'd prefer to learn it.  Even if we can't help you ourselves, we can put you in touch with other people who can give you the latest information about courses in Oxford.

Feedback from our pilot course in August 2007 suggests that people would rather learn in small groups or on a one-to-one basis, so this will probably be how our future training takes place.  We are currently thinking of carrying out training for people who want to be community journalists, but this plan is in the early stages.