A journalism student who completed his NCTJ training while backpacking through South America has written about his experience.

Alan Palazon has completed the MA Journalism distance learning course at the University of Portsmouth while studying from a variety of Central and South American nations.

Alan, pictured, managed to complete his first term while travelling around Costa Rica.

He later spent time in Colombia and Ecuador, sourcing stories from locals for his assignments.

In a first-person piece, Alan wrote: “The assignments came flooding in from the get go and completing these while on the move brought more challenges.

“Among these were power cuts. I was now based in Ecuador and during the first two months here the country experienced an energy crisis. I had no idea about this before arriving.

“However, by staying in accommodations with backup generators, I was able to hand in assignments on time – this was crucial.

“I also had to build relationships and source interviews with locals every time I moved. Not only that, I was doing everything in Spanish. However, this was a blessing in disguise as the masters forced me to expand my vocabulary into niche topics such as politics, the law and climate change, taking my Spanish skills to the next level.

“Overall, my experience on the masters was more than I’d hoped for and I’ve grown a lot as a person and professionally.

“But I’ve come away feeling like my ability to bring all of these aspects together and manage projects is much stronger. Also, the confidence I have in my writing abilities has grown massively.”