They may not be aware of it, but the bright stars of the Times Young Photographer of the Year competition are following a great tradition. Britain has always been a big newspaper-reading nation and, from the heyday of smudgy black-and-white print to the glossy, full-colour, digital age, photographs have always sold newspapers and magazines.

That could be why this country has produced more than its fair share of outstanding press photographers. The tradition goes back to James Robertson, who helped to introduce the idea of war photography by recording the Crimean War in 1855.

Perhaps the most famous of the greats was Bert Hardy, who left school aged 14 in 1927, taught himself to take pictures and rose to become chief photographer of Picture Post. He was celebrated for his war images and was one of the first photographers inside Belsen concentration camp when it was liberated in 1945.

In the decades after the war, a string of well-known British snappers emerged, who have kept the tradition of excellence going in the fields of war, portrait and sports photography.

Brilliant stills photography continues to have a future, despite the arrival of the video age, because the impact of a single image is one of the most powerful tools in journalism.

Today’s hopefuls do not have to teach themselves as Bert Hardy did. They can obtain tuition, coaching and inspiration through a selection of courses up and down the country.

One of the most successful institutions putting forward entrants in this year’s Young Photographer contest is Norton College, Sheffield. It runs a highly regarded press photography and photojournalism course, affiliated to the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

Paul Delmar, the senior lecturer, says: “I look for students with initiative and energy. They must be highly motivated, with boundless enthusiasm and self-discipline.” Students cover photographic theory and practice and undertake work experience with newspapers or agencies.

“I push them to be tenacious individuals who can think on their feet.

Their images must evoke a response from the reader,” he adds. He is looking for enduring images such as The Times photographer Peter Nicholls’s picture, above, of a statue of Saddam Hussein surrounded by flames during the invasion of Iraq. For Delmar it is one of the all-time great pictures.

The University of Gloucestershire, in Cheltenham, runs a three-year BA course in photojournalism and documentary photography. This is a new degree, combining practical skills with theoretical studies; it sets out to be “highly vocational” and to help students to develop their own style. The course is linked to the Magnum picture agency, as part of its education programme, as is the three-year press photography course at University College Falmouth, Cornwall.

Swansea University offers a degree in photojournalism, which also looks at the subject in the context of books and other commerical outlets.

With a suitable HND or a foundation degree qualification you can take a BA in photo media through a one-year “top-up” course at Bournemouth University.

If you have a first degree, you could consider a selection of postgraduate opportunities to study press photography. The London College of Communication has a one-year MA/postgraduate diploma course in photojournalism and documentary photography. It runs for 45 weeks and includes work experience with a national newspaper, magazine or picture agency. Other postgraduate courses are available at the University of Bolton and the University of Westminster.

Each course has its own character and emphasis, but all have something in common: they could be turning a budding photographer into the next big name in a long British tradition.