THE Daily Echo is hiring a community reporter thanks to a unique partnership involving Facebook and the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

The Community News Project is creating 82 community reporter jobs across the UK, including one at the Bournemouth Daily Echo.

Journalism experience or training is not essential, but the scheme is looking for people who care about their communities and want to make a difference.

We are especially keen to hear from people who believe they can help make newsrooms more representative of the communities they serve.

Echo editor Andy Martin said: "The role will mainly involve engaging with people in specific communities to curate, collate and create content relevant to them.

"The reporter will act as the point of contact for online communities by engaging with and seeking out content, written by the reporter or members of those communities."

He added: "It has become harder and harder to cover all our communities in the depth that we have traditionally done, so this NCTJ initiative is a huge boost."

The successful candidate will receive industry-leading digital journalism training, which they can share in their newsrooms, as well as the National Council for the Training of Journalists’ (NCTJ) gold standard training to become a fully-qualified journalist.

Candidates need to have at least five GCSEs, with maths and English at C or above, or equivalent.

Those who are doing completely different jobs are welcome.

For applicants with no journalism experience or education, the scheme offers journalism apprenticeships, combining intensive training with on-the-job experience.

For applicants with journalism experience or education, there are trainee community reporter roles, where support will be provided to gain the necessary NCTJ qualifications to become a senior reporter.

The role is initially on a two-year, fixed-term contract.

To apply, send a CV and covering letter explaining why you are the right person to the job, to amanda.langton@localiq.co.uk or by post to Amanda Langton, Daily Echo, Richmond Hill, Bournemouth BH2 6HH, by January 31.

We are committed to equal opportunity for all. We may collect relevant data for monitoring as part of our candidate registration process.

We will be reviewing applications as they are received so don't delay.