What John Schofield Trust does

The John Schofield Trust is a UK-registered non-profit charity, founded in 1996 and named after the late BBC correspondent John Schofield. It provides mentoring, masterclasses, and training programmes for early-career and aspiring journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Delivery is free to participants and is funded through grants from major UK and Irish media organizations. The Trust runs an alumni Fellowship network of more than 1,400 journalists and operates university partnerships across Dublin, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and other regional centres, with a paid staff of approximately two and a wider mentor cohort of around 74 total personnel.

The Trust's product surface has expanded materially over 2022–2025: regional masterclasses now tour seven UK and Irish cities; the Student Fellows programme, launched in 2023, serves undergraduate journalism students; and the schools programme has been extended into Northern Ireland and Scotland. Programmes are delivered via in-person workshops, an online mentoring platform built on Brightside, and communications tooling (MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, WhatsApp). The operating model is grant-funded rather than fee-based, with no disclosed tuition or membership pricing.

Revenue derives from a concentrated set of UK media-industry funders, anchored historically by the BBC, ITV, Sky News, and Channel 4, and broadened in 2023–2024 through partnerships with News UK and Ireland, PA Media Group, Reach PLC, and DC Thomson. Governance was refreshed in late 2024 with the appointment of seven new trustees, and in March 2025 Jonathan Paterson succeeded founder Susie Schofield MBE as Chair, marking a formal generational transition.

Name

John Schofield Trust

Legal name

The John Schofield Trust

Website

https://johnschofieldtrust.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

The John Schofield Trust is a UK non-profit charity, founded in 1996, that provides free mentoring, masterclasses, and training programmes for early-career and aspiring journalists across the UK and Ireland, funded by grants from major media organizations and supported by a 1,400-strong alumni Fellowship network.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Journalism Mentoring and Training

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (8132)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Private Foundations (BPAGAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Scholarship & Fellowship Foundations and Trusts (EDADAHAC), Charitable Giving & Philanthropic Trust Advisory (FSAEAKAH)

Keywords

• Journalism mentoring programs
• Early career training
• Media diversity initiatives
• Social mobility programs
• Charitable education services

Headquarters

HQ city

Haslemere

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Charitable Grants and Support: Funded by major media organizations and foundations including BBC, News UK, ITV, Sky News, CNN, and others who support the Trust's mission financially.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The John Schofield Trust is a UK and Ireland-based charity that provides world-class mentoring and training to help aspiring and early career journalists access and navigate the profession. Its core services are free 12-month mentoring schemes (for early career/apprentice journalists and undergraduate students), regional masterclasses, and the RTS Young Talent of the Year Award, all funded by major media organisations and foundations.

Product overview

The John Schofield Trust is a charity providing world-class mentoring and training to help aspiring and early career journalists access and navigate the profession. The organization operates as a single unified service offering with multiple interconnected programmes: (1) the Early Career Journalist Mentoring Scheme - a 12-month face-to-face programme pairing early career journalists with experienced Senior Fellows as mentors; (2) the University Student Mentoring programme for undergraduate journalism students; (3) Masterclasses offering practical training sessions and industry debates; (4) the RTS Young Talent of the Year Award recognizing outstanding work by journalists under 30; and (5) The Fellowship - the community of mentees, mentors, and student fellows that forms the backbone of the Trust's work. These programmes work together to provide approximately 70 journalists per year with individual mentoring, masterclasses, and networking opportunities, with the goal of improving social mobility in journalism.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Early Career Journalist Mentoring Scheme A 12-month mentoring programme that matches early career and apprentice journalists (up to five years in the industry) with experienced Senior Fellow mentors. Prioritises applicants who enter journalism without privilege and serves around 70 mentees per year.
• University Student Mentoring A 12-month mentoring programme for undergraduate journalism students delivered in partnership with universities in Dublin, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Lancashire, Kent and Northampton.
• Masterclasses Practical training sessions and topical industry debates offered to all Fellows, covering pitching, presenting, podcasting and news-industry issues, delivered as both online and in-person regional masterclass tours.
• RTS Young Talent of the Year Award An annual industry award set up by the Trust with the Royal Television Society in 1996 in memory of John Schofield, recognising the best journalism work during the year by a journalist under 30.
• The Fellowship The overarching community of 1,400+ Fellows including Senior Fellows (mentors), early career journalists and Student Fellows, providing structured mentoring, masterclasses and ongoing networking support.
• Online Mentoring Scheme (Year 12) Online mentoring scheme for Year 12 secondary school students, delivered through the Brightside secure platform commissioned by the Trust, targeting students from disadvantaged backgrounds to introduce journalism as a career option.

Quantifiable outcome

• 68% of Fellows came from non-selective state schools (vs 43% of Britain's top 100 journalists from private schools)
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Financial TimescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 March 2022Partnership providing mentees with access to FT journalism and training resources.
• Tortoise MediaminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2021New partnership announced in 2021 for journalism training collaboration.
• BrightsidecoreTechnology or IntegrationOnline mentoring platform provider commissioned to run the Year 12 student online mentoring scheme. Brightside's secure platform allows mentees and mentors to share information and the Trust monitors progress after programmes finish.
• Royal Television SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-standing partnership since 1996 for the RTS Young Talent of the Year Award. RTS shares winner contact details with the Trust and jointly promotes the award in memory of John Schofield.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Direct peers

• The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust: UK charity founded in memory of Stephen Lawrence to support young people into careers where they are under-represented. Closely comparable in structure (memorial foundation established by a family member, small staff, donor-funded, mentoring/education programmes for disadvantaged youth transitioning into professional careers).
• The Rory Peck Trust: UK-based charity providing practical and financial support to freelance journalists worldwide. Closest direct peer: same journalism-focused mission, same UK charity model, similar small operational scale, and similar reliance on media industry funders and high-profile patrons.
• The Sutton Trust: UK charity focused on social mobility through education. Direct peer because the Trust explicitly cites Sutton Trust data (e.g., 43% of Britain's top 100 journalists privately educated) as its benchmark; both organisations use education and access programmes to break down privilege barriers and target similar demographics (non-selective state school, first-generation HE, FSM-eligible).
• The Journalists' Charity (formerly the Newspaper Press Fund): Long-standing UK charity supporting journalists and their families in need. Most directly comparable peer — also a UK-registered charity (but older, founded 1864), similar donor-funded model, similar focus on the welfare and careers of UK journalists, and a comparable small operational footprint.
• The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust: UK independent grantmaking trust supporting progressive social change. Direct peer as a foundation of similar size and structure that distributes grants to charitable causes (including media and diversity) and operates with a small staff from a Yorkshire base.

Broad incumbents

• The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism: Research and training arm based at the University of Oxford that produces influential annual diversity reports and journalism training programmes. Comparable as a UK-based journalism education and research institution addressing the same diversity and skills gaps the Trust targets, but operates at larger scale and as part of a university.
• Reporters Without Borders (RSF): International press freedom NGO with training, grants, and mentoring programmes for journalists. Comparable in mission (supporting journalists from disadvantaged or at-risk backgrounds) but operates globally, is materially larger, and is more focused on safety/press freedom than UK career mentoring.

Others

• The Amy Winehouse Foundation: UK memorial foundation supporting young people through education and prevention programmes. Thematically comparable — small memorial charity with a family-driven origin, donor-funded, focused on disadvantaged youth — providing a structural reference point for how a 30-year memorial trust can scale programme delivery.
• Press Gazette (Impress, NS Media Group): UK trade publication covering the journalism industry. Not a charity, but a directly adjacent ecosystem player that consistently covers and amplifies the Trust's awards and Fellows, providing earned-media reach without which the Trust's mentor pipeline would be weaker.

Emerging players

• Women in Journalism (UK): UK organisation supporting women in the news industry through mentoring, networking, and events. Emerging peer: overlapping mission around diversity and career support in UK journalism, but runs as a smaller membership body rather than a structured 12-month mentoring programme.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/jschofieldtrust
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCZioGR3ZnRczMqF6CBcU_mw
• Facebookfacebook.com/The-John-Schofield-Trust-166507186769900
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/john-schofield-trust
• Instagraminstagram.com/johnschofieldtrust

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about John Schofield Trust