Q&A: "Basics in Journalism" Certificate

If you do a whole journalism training cycle with us, we will provide you with a “Basics in Journalism” certificate.

This consists of mandatory and non-mandatory training modules. Each module gives you points. You need a total of 50 points to receive the “Basics in Journalism” certificate. For an overview of the points, please check the matrix.

Each training module you complete with us will give you points. In order to receive the certificate, you need to complete the training cycle and achieve a total of 50 points. There are mandatory training modules that must all be completed in order to receive the certificate (40 points in total). And there are optional ones from which you can choose freely whenever we offer them, but you should do so many that they will give you 10 points in total.

You will receive the points for each module if you have attended all of the module sessions and handed in the homework or texts your trainers have asked you to do.

Courses with one session will give you one point. The session with the longest duration is Storytelling I: it includes six sessions and a written piece of work. The trainers will ask you to do research and interviews between the sessions. Other modules that require a written piece are Storytelling I+II, Interviews, Opinion Writing, and News. That’s because we want you to practise a lot and feel familiar and comfortable with writing. 

The training course teaches journalistic standards, how to write concisely and how to tell a story. This also includes an understanding of what information a reader from other countries actually needs to find a topic interesting. You will get a basic understanding of journalism and the most important journalistic techniques. The entry course is a starting point. There is much more to learn and practise. You can do this in the follow-up training modules.

If you have acquired the ”Basics in Journalism“ certificate, you will have learned many things, such as: How do I do research? How do I write well and densely in English? How do I tell a story that will be interesting for an audience? How do I conduct and write down an interview? What distinguishes the different journalistic formats from one another? What is ‘Constructive Journalism’? How do I pitch my article to a media house? and much more. With this bag full of journalistic knowledge and practical experience, you can offer topics that are important to you to the media and try to work for them. More and more international publishers and broadcasters need competent reporters on site as they know the reality on the ground and come up with exclusive topics. In addition, fewer and fewer international publishers and media houses have enough budget to send reporters on long trips. This trend has become apparent in the last years. At the same time, new technical possibilities such as chat and video-call programs will enable media to research and report on the world differently in future, working together with local experts. Quality standards in this industry are very high, so you need to have good writing skills to earn money in the journalism sector. You can prove that you have completed journalistic training by means of the certificate. The certificate alone does not guarantee that you will reach the standard for working professionally. But it is a good starting point.

You can also communicate topics from your own NGO better. During the training course, you will learn how to arouse interest and increase your reach. Or you can work on topics on behalf of other NGOs, foundations and international organizations. These organizations also increasingly rely on local experts for their project reports. They, too, have high quality standards. The certificate is designed to help you meet these standards. But the outcome will also depend on your commitment and dedication. 

Storytelling is also a helpful skill in many other situations, for instance, if you hold a speech or do a presentation, if you want to motivate people or have a job interview.

In addition to the online sessions, you will receive individual feedback from the trainers on your texts: on structure, content, style - right down to individual sentences and words. Only a very few training institutions offer this level of intensity.

Our trainers are extremely experienced and have worked for renowned media houses such as The Guardian, Observer Magazine, Marie Claire, and others.

In addition, you can apply what you've learned right away to ifa's online magazine SHARE. You can become part of a publishing community that aims to strengthen global civil society.

If you participate in each course we offer, you can finish the cycle for the certificate in 1-1.5 years. But you do not have to. You can do the certificate all at once or in two or three years, taking breaks in between. Modules will be repeated every year.

If a few courses are enough for you, that's fine. But then you will not obtain the “Basics in Journalism” certificate and you won't train your skills as intensively. We can, however, provide you with a certificate of participation in individual modules.

No, you don’t have to take the modules in a special order, except for the initial course. Furthermore, Storytelling III requires successful participation in Storytelling II as a prerequisite. Other than that, there is no particular order in which participants must take courses. 

No. The cost for the training module is covered by ifa. In doing so, it fulfils its mission to support global civil society. ifa is mainly financed by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Anyone who has already completed a CCP Fellowship or another of ifa’s programs or is currently completing one can apply. So, if you would like to participate in the training module, but are not yet an ifa Fellow or Alum, you should first apply to CCP or to another ifa department for a Fellowship/scholarship/funding. You can find all the information on the ifa website. After that, the doors for the journalism training course will be open to you.

We offer two starter courses for beginners each year, one in the first half and one in the second half of the year. If you are an ifa Alum, keep your eyes open for an email with detailed information on how to apply.

All training modules will be online. You should have a reliable internet connection.

We have an internationally diverse range of trainers, and all are at the top of their field. We make sure to get trainers with experience in internationally known media houses. Please follow this link to find out more about them.

The initial course consists of three modules: Elements of Journalism, Elements of Style and Storytelling I. You will get an idea of how to write concisely and some practise in doing so. You will learn how to tell a story and respect journalistic standards. It takes three months to participate in this initial course. If you attend all of the sessions and have handed in a written piece at the end, you will have participated successfully and can continue with the other modules whenever they are offered. The CCP team will inform you in good time before the next module is offered.

You are not obliged to continue after the initial course, but of course it would be great if you did, because you will build up on what you have learned. In the follow-up modules Storytelling II and III, you will be given the chance to practise even more and gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to tell a good story.

When you have participated in the initial course you will already have achieved 10 points out of 50 for the certificate.

We write to potential participants in good time to ask if they want to participate. Potential participants are the ones who have already passed the initial course (Elements of Journalism, Elements of Style, Storytelling I).

We need to be flexible in our planning, because of the availability of the trainers. That’s why we cannot provide all the dates for the ongoing year months in advance. You can check the calendar in the group “Info Training Text” on our civil society platform from time to time, where we will set the dates for the modules as soon as they have been scheduled.

The modules will be repeated every year so there will always be another chance. But you should not miss any of the sessions in the initial course.

When you sign up for a module, we expect you to attend and do the homework. The training sessions would cost a lot of money if we charged fees. You don't have to pay anything, but please show your appreciation by being reliable. If something really hinders you from attending once, we expect you to inform the trainer in advance and explain why. If you miss too often, you will not get points and will be signed off. For further modules, we will accept only those who participated reliably in the previous courses.

There is an online course almost every Saturday of the year, with a break around New Year's Day.

Most ifa Alums have a job during the week and don't have time then. That is why we have scheduled the courses on Saturdays. In various surveys, this day has proven to be the most suitable. 

The time can vary. The participants in the courses come from very different time zones. We adjust for this and set the time for the start of a session before the next module. The sessions last three hours, and each participant should allow a buffer of one hour afterwards. We don't want to end abruptly when we're in the middle of reading a text. If participants are from the Americas, 2 p.m. CET (German time) has proven to be a good starting time. We strongly expect participants in the program to be flexible in their schedule on Saturdays.

In most countries, journalism is a profession with no entry restriction. A journalist is someone who works for the media and reports independently. If you do that following the course, then, yes, you are a journalist! This training can enable you to work for the media. It teaches you journalistic techniques that you need for working in journalism professionally or for working for international NGOs and foundations as a storyteller. Of course, that’s no guarantee for success: your exceptional commitment and dedication are essential for achieving this goal.

The online magazine SHARE strives for a very high level of quality. This training helps to reach this level. There are some Alums who are professional journalists and already have the prerequisite. If they suggest great topics, it is possible to be commissioned even without having previously acquired the ifa certificate. But it is easier to work with authors who have participated in some of our training modules.