This two-day course is part of the Forecaster Professional Development programme. It is aimed at all practising forecasters where dealing with the media is an important part of their work.

The course aims to enable forecasters to broaden their communication skills for both written and oral products supplied to the media. TV skills are not covered. Upon completion, attendees will be able to:

• Improve written material for non-broadcast media to fit the customer's defined style and structure
• Improve broadcast scripts to fit the customer's defined style and structure
• Give an effective radio interview as a representative of their organisation
   

This course is designed to help forecasters to be more creative and flexible in script and product creation. This is accomplished through training by a media consultant and Weather Centre staff. A range of products and styles are examined, with plenty of time for experimentation and practice.

There is also an opportunity to develop interviewing skills. This will help when giving a feature interview for radio within a local programming service, and in the 'harder news' interviews with local or national radio.