Director of Training Nick Raistrick’s first job in journalism was working as a football commentator; he has since worked as an editor, journalist, trainer and broadcaster covering a range of subjects, from development issues to gender-based violence.
Nick worked at the BBC for nearly a decade, as a web editor, journalist, producer and finally as journalism training editor at the World Service Trust, where he managed the BBC’s online journalism training portal, iLearn, overseeing its expansion into more than a dozen languages and twenty territories worldwide, including India, Somalia, Nigeria and China, building local teams and helping them to deliver online and face-to-face training. He was recently asked back to review, revise and refresh this training material for the BBC.
Nick has a strong interest in sport for development, and has been involved with the East Africa Cup event in Moshi, Tanzania, for more than a decade. He delivered training with young people at the event as a volunteer, and acted as its director of media development when the team won “Best Sports Event for Peace” award at the Peace and Sport awards in Monaco in 2011.
Nick presented a 20-minute film on the cup for The Community Channel and produced a video for UK Sport, featuring Lord Coe and a Kenyan football team filmed on location in Tanzania.
Read Nick’s account of the first ten years of the East Africa Cup and its role in assisting development at: https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/publication/east-africa-cup-first-ten-years
Nick developed online training material for the BBC World Service Trust on sport for development and in reporting sport; and produced packages which were broadcast on BBC World Service radio on sport for development issues raised at the event. Nick was also part of a BBC delegation to the ‘Next Step’ conference in Windhoek, Namibia, where he worked on participatory video sessions.
Nick’s freelance training work has included projects for Internews, Panos, DfID and the Cabinet Office in Kashmir, Nigeria and the UK. He is currently writing a book about cycling, which has taken him to South America, East Africa and Japan.