The first trainee subs to go through The Sun's sub-editing diploma have all landed jobs on the paper.
The "super-six" were selected from journalism courses last summer and put through an intensive nine-month programme of training and work experience, organised by Press Association Training. Now Andrew Ewart, Mark Hudson, Marina McIntyre (news), David Firth (features), Dean Scoggins (sport) and Gemma Varley (online) have all made the grade and landed full-time jobs at Wapping.
Jim Holgate, The Sun's associate night editor, said: "For one candidate to make the grade would be a good result – for all six to come good is nothing short of astonishing.
"We realised very quickly that we had, potentially, an excellent crop of young subs. We invested a lot of time and effort in training them and it has paid dividends.
"I dubbed them the Super Six – and they have lived up to that tag."
The six young subs were given five-weeks' intensive training at PA's training centres in Howden and Newcastle and then worked as subs for PA and major regional newspaper titles.
They were also put through their paces at The Sun during regular secondments throughout the nine months where their work was assessed and monitored before.
Director of Training at The Press Association, Peter Sands, said: "It is a fantastic achievement. When we embarked on this training there was no guarantee of a job for any of them. It was made crystal clear that they would only be taken-on if they were good enough. For all six to have gone from journalism college to jobs on the country's biggest selling daily in just nine months, is remarkable."
The scheme has been so successful that The Sun is now recruiting for this year's intake. One of the trainees, Andrew Ewart, said: "The teaching at PA was top notch. I learned so quickly and everyone made the material interesting and fun – we learnt so much in such a short space of time.
"The placements were fascinating and the help the tutors gave really boosted my confidence.
"Now I'm at The Sun – my dream job. I can't quite believe it."
Press Association Training runs similar production journalism schemes for the Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, Northcliffe Media and this year is running a sub-editing diploma on behalf of the Irish Daily Star.