THERE are journalists all over the world who were trained in Darlington. For decades, the town has not only been known for giving birth to the railways but nurturing careers in the media.

Eminent members of the profession who cut their teeth at Darlington College include John Sergeant, who became the BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent and Political Editor of ITN; Ian Sherwood, Senior Editor of International News for NBC News; and ITV news reader Juliet Bremner.

Although he never reached those dizzy national heights, the current occupant of the editor’s chair at The Northern Echo also trained at Darlington College back in the “hot metal” days of 1980 and even met his future wife there.

The Echo has always enjoyed a strong relationship with the journalism course at Darlington College for decades but it has been taken to a new level for the latest intake of students.

For the first time, an integral part of the course is now a newsroom day at The Northern Echo’s head office in Priestgate, Darlington.

Every Thursday, the students on the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) pre-entry course spend the day working from our building. They attend news conferences, integrate with our journalists, and produce real content which is published in our newspapers and on our websites.

It was an experiment but one which has proved to be mutually beneficial.

The students get invaluable experience and a genuine insight into life in a busy newsroom. CVs are being enriched and relationships built which I’m confident will lead to employment opportunities.

From The Northern Echo’s point of view, we benefit from the additional content the students produce. Since the course started in September, plenty of examples of their excellent work – words, pictures and video – have enhanced our titles.

It is also true to say that some of the “old hands” – including me – have benefited from the students’ knowledge of the rapid changes in modern social media.

At 53, I’m not too proud to learn from youngsters.

An NCTJ accreditation panel visited our offices recently and I’m delighted to say they left full of praise for the opportunities on offer.

Sue Calvert, an experienced North-East journalist who runs the course, said: “Having that physical link with The Northern Echo newsroom has been invaluable and has undoubtedly increased the students’ chances of competing in a highly competitive jobs market.”

I would agree – and for those considering a career in the media, “taster days” are being held at The Northern Echo’s offices in Darlington between 1pm and 4pm on February 9, March 1 and April 12.

There will be the chance for prospective students, and their parents, to look round the newsroom and talk to the students currently on the course.

For more information, or to book onto one of the tasters, email marketing@darlington.ac.uk stating your name, contact details and the date you would like to attend.

I hope to see you there.

ONE of the reasons for writing this weekly column is to attempt to give readers an insight into an editor’s life.

So, there I was, sleeping unusually soundly, when the phone rang beside my bed at 2.43am. This isn’t that unusual – the phone can ring at any time.

It was our print centre on Teesside and the conversation started with these words: “I know there’s nothing you can do about this at this time of night but...”

The print centre manager went on to explain that the “Education Matters” supplement had 2015, instead of 2016, on the front cover.

He was right, it was too late for me to do anything about it, so the presses had to roll with the error.

I don’t blame the press manager – he was just doing his job – but there wasn’t much sleep to be had from then on.

When I got into the office, I fixed the person responsible with my blurry eyes and made it clear that education really does matter – and dates are especially important when it comes to history lessons.

Apologies for the error.

PREDICTIVE text can be great fun and I suspect that was the explanation for a rather strange letter from a reader in the wonderfully-named Thornton Le Beans.

He was having a go at North Yorkshire County Council over the lack of public toilets which are now “only available in pubs and testosterones”.

I imagine it was meant to be “restaurants” and it reminds me of the embarrassments presented by computer spell-checkers over the years.

There was the time our business page reported the opening of a de-luxe sandwich shop, where the recipes included “marinaded aborigines”. It should have been aubergines.

On the flip-side, we once published a travel feature about Australia, where the “territorial rights of aubergines” were mentioned.

FINALLY, I’d like to give a shout out to the unsung heroes of our business – paperboys and girls.

There’s a small army of them out there, delivering the papers in all kinds of weather and having to be on their guard for ferocious dogs.

But spare a thought for 14-year-old Jaxon Gessel, who was delivering papers in Utah the other day, when he was attacked by a mad goat called Voldemort and was forced to climb a tree.

It was only when he was 90 minutes late that his parents called the police.

So spare a thought for the paperkids – keep your dogs (and goats) under control.