A RECORD five students from the journalism degree course at the University of Worcester have secured work at the BBC.

This success coincides with the course receiving Broadcast Journalism Training Council accreditation until 2021.

The five students all got a foothold into work after undertaking placements as part of a university and BBC Media Diversity Partnership scheme.

Three of them were in paid work while still studying, Kathryn Emerson as a broadcast assistant at BBC Shropshire, and Max Banner and Emma Trim at BBC Hereford-Worcester.

Emma was quickly snapped up as a reporter by BBC Gloucestershire and Kathryn, who continued working as a freelancer at the Shropshire radio station, has now joined the Gloucestershire station as a social media producer, creating videos for Facebook.

Kathryn, 22, originally from Bishops Castle, Shropshire, said: “The course was hugely beneficial to me and I’m grateful for all the help and support from my lecturers.”

Emma, 24, originally from Christchurch, Dorset, said: “I now work alongside the very people at the BBC who came in as guest speakers to my lectures. Sometimes I forget how far I’ve come since leaving university, but it really was the best decision I ever made."

Graduate Hayden Atkins, from Birmingham, has just moved from Made in Birmingham TV to BBC Channel Isles as a senior broadcast journalist. He said: “To get a BBC job at 22 is a dream come true and something I hoped would happen when I started the course at Worcester in 2013."

Charlotte Broadbent, who has worked at BBC Hereford-Worcester as a freelancer since graduating, has just secured a broadcast journalist contract with them.

She said: “The skills I developed during news days on the university course have been directly transferred to my current job at the radio station – skills such as newsgathering, building contacts and being able to make editorial decisions about the different treatments of news stories have played an integral role in the work I do now."

Max Banner, who went straight into work as Online Editor at Koru Media Limited, contributes to the BBC’s football and horse racing coverage after completing a one-month placement with BBC Sport England at the Mailbox, Birmingham.

He said: "The BBC placements helped me to establish some footing with the radio station."

The students follow in the footsteps of other graduates, including Justyn Surrall at BBC Hereford-Worcester and Will Fyfe at BBC Wales.

Claire Wolfe, principal lecturer in journalism, who oversees the BBC partnership, said: “The BBC is a great employer and the placements offer our students an opportunity to become truly professional journalists.

“The staff on the course are all dedicated to giving our students the very best start to their careers and we stay in touch, letting them know of potential contacts and opportunities after they have left. We never forget them and are as delighted as they are when they achieve success.”

Official Unistats figures show 100 per cent of the university’s 2017 journalism graduates achieved work within six months.