Welcome to the Training Station.

Media Training Station Community Interest Company – trading as MTS and ‘The Training Station’ – is a not-for-profit social enterprise registered in England and Wales, number 7809518. It was established in October 2011 with the purpose of providing training in professional and personal skills, especially in the fields of journalism, the media, human rights and humanitarian and development aid.

A community interest company (CIC) works for the benefit of a defined community – in our case, journalists and media organisations in countries in transition, crisis and conflict, as well as people who work in the development and humanitarian sectors. The aims and operation of a CIC have to be approved by a government regulator. All profits are re-invested for the benefit of the community.

To date we have delivered projects with a value of more than one million pounds, all on time and within budget.

We’ve delivered training and created content on behalf of the British Council; the British government sports development agency, UK Sport; the major media development organisation Internews; and the BBC’s media development charity, BBC Media Action.

We’ve created online courses for universities, NGOs, and news organisations. We introduced video learning resources into online postgraduate courses for the Royal Agricultural University.

We’ve received funding directly and indirectly from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office; the UK Department for International Development; Norwegian People’s Aid; the US State Department, and USAID.

We are registered as a US government supplier with DUNS number 217502422 and with EU EuropeAid with PADOR number GB-2013-GBK-1402713565.

We are registered exempt from VAT in the UK.

Project design and management

We develop media production and training projects worldwide, on behalf of governments, international non-governmental organisations, and commercial companies.

Training

We deliver face-to-face and distance training, mentoring and support in journalism practice and ethics, governance and development issues, conflict resolution, human rights, communicating gender-based violence issues, editorial skills, management in the media, building links with the media. We identify training needs and establish training plans to meet them. We devise innovative, interactive training, and evaluate learning programmes.

Online learning

We create rich, online learning content specifically for well-defined target audiences. We develop and deliver a variety of robust online learning platforms suitable for use in challenging IT environments.

Media production

We create multi-media content, including text, audio and video, deploying the most appropriate technologies, whether that is full broadcast-quality equipment or a smartphone. We have a total of 30 years’ experience of broadcast radio and television, and continue to produce audio-visual material for broadcast and non-broadcast clients, often in collaboration with our clients.  We use our own equipment as far as possible, but hire in additional facilities and services when they are needed. This means we can produce video and audio content to a very high standard, but at a rate that is affordable for not-for-profit organisations and the public sector.

Recruitment, induction and support of trainers

We recruit appropriately skilled and motivated trainers, especially for work in countries in crisis and undergoing development.

We’ve worked extensively overseas for many years, and enjoy working with diverse, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual groups.

Between us, we’ve worked in more than 70 countries, including:

• Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia,  Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, Ukraine
• Eurasia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine
• Middle East: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran (remotely), Israel, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen
• Africa: Algeria, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
• Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam
• Americas: Brazil

The directors of The Training Station are three former BBC journalists and trainers – Nick Raistrick, Kevin Burden and Neil McCafferty. Individually and jointly, they are highly regarded in the media training sector.

They are also very active outside work, on land, sea and air.

Managing Director Kevin Burden lives by the sea and, outside working hours, spends his time on and in the water.

Neil McCafferty, our Director of Broadcast and Technology, takes to the air, piloting everything from small airplanes to large commercial jets.

Director of Training Nick Raistrick prefers land, which he criss-crosses on two wheels.

Follow the links to read more about their professional lives.