Bulgarian National Radio's training centre, the BNR Academy, has produced its first 12 graduates, taught entirely by the broadcaster's in-house trainers. The programme was set up with the aid of the EBU's Eurovision ACADEMY.

This project, launched 8 months ago, was developed and led by Eurovision  ACADEMY's Frédéric Frantz who worked in close collaboration with the Graduate School of Journalism (ESJ) in Montpellier, France.

The first stage of the project involved selecting and training experienced journalists from BNR to become in-house trainers and pass on their knowledge. It also gave them the tools to construct a complete "Master class in radio journalism".

In the second stage, Eurovision ACADEMY and the team of trainers laid the foundations for the first training programme. They selected appropriate candidates and planned the nine modules that cover key radio journalism skills. These were interviewing, voice and writing coaching, scripting news bulletins, feature writing, ethics, information and sources, reporting, social media and news flashes. The criteria for assessing the journalists' work was also decided.

The first batch of 12 journalists were selected from 46 candidates from all parts of Bulgaria. They attended the 20-day course in nine modules over a period of six months to ensure they acquired a solid foundation of knowledge.

After strict continuous assessment, the journalists took a final exam for which they prepared a radio report, a documentary feature and a summary memo. Their work was assessed by four people: two BNR Senior Directors and two trainers from BNR Academy. All acknowledged the excellence of the candidates' work. The top student was Plamen Kotsev, a journalist from Radio Vidin, who obtained the best marks for each module and in the final exam.

On October 16, 10 BNR Academy trainers and the 12 graduates received their final Eurovision ACADEMY - ESJ Pro - BNR Diploma from BNR's Director General Radoslav Yankulov.

The second BNR Academy Master class in Radio Journalism will start in January 2015 with 13 new participants.