PASHA Bank, one of Azerbaijan's largest banks, announces that Azerbaijani journalists participating in its 2016 business journalism programme have completed a one-week educational trip to the UK. This visit marks the final stage of the programme, which was also supported by the British Council and Thomson Foundation.

The aim of the UK visit was for programme participants to learn directly from their European counterparts and to gain first hand exposure to the UK's key media institutions. During the trip, journalists taking part in the programme met with representatives from the well-known media outlets The Telegraph, BBC and Press Association. They also visited the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Great Britain, the House of Lords and met with leading specialists at the London Stock Exchange.

PASHA Bank's annual business journalism programme consists of four sessions. During the first three sessions, participants studied the current trend of online journalism and learnt a variety of skills, including how to maintain professional blogs, how to find necessary content and how to work with online tools to process information. These sessions were delivered by the British journalism and digital skills trainer, Dan Mason.

Now in its fifth year, the main objective of the business journalism project is to establish a leading group of journalists in Azerbaijan covering economic and business issues. After gaining first-hand exposure to European media practices, local journalists can apply the skills learnt during the course of the programme to their day-to-day work and will be able to approach business and economic stories affecting Azerbaijan with a new level of professionalism.