The Periodicals Training Council (PTC) is the lead body for best practice in training and development and people management for the magazine and business media industry.
PTC enhances the performance of people working in magazines and professional media publishing by improving the quality and availability of training, acting as a focus for guidance on employment best practice and encouraging new talent into the sector through the provision of careers information. Our vision is for a fully professionalised industry, with equal recognition and opportunity for employees across all functions of the business.
We offer support and advice in three key areas:
Encouraging new talent
- PTC course accreditation - PTC accredits a number of pre-entry journalism courses. For a course to become accredited, the training provider must prove it works closely with the industry and meets PTC's exacting standards. A list of PTC-accredited courses can be found here and the schedule for accreditation visits can be found here.
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Magscene - PTC publishes Magscene, the only magazine specific careers guide available in the UK.
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PTC guidelines for work experience - PTC has developed guidelines to promote best practice when offering work experience placements which have become the industry standard.
- PTC New Journalist of the Year Awards - PTC's prestigious annual awards recognise and reward the brightest and best of the industry's new journalists and designers.
- Magazine Academy - This annual competition enables students to produce a magazine, have it judged by experts and showcased at an awards event attended by publishers and editors.
Developing existing talent
PTC leads the field in activities that focus on core business personnel - e.g. publishers, editors, production controllers, sales teams - driving up professional standards by developing the high quality and cutting edge vocational training and qualifications the industry needs. It is the overall responsibility of PTC to identify and develop courses and qualifications, which are then delivered by PPA Training.
Supporting the industry
- PPA HR & Training Network Group - a network which aims to improve competitiveness in hiring and retaining staff, exchange ideas and experiences in HR management and promote and share best practice.
- PPA Salary Survey - an online salary enabling companies to benchmark their pay and benefits packages against salary data and information provided by other publishers.
- PPA Benchmarking survey - a free service which invites PPA member companies to exchange information on employee benefits to help with external benchmarking.