The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is offering two online courses in English and Spanish on covering personal finance. The courses are for Hispanic journalists and US journalists covering finance issues for minority and immigrant communities. They will run July 1, to August 12, 2011. Deadline to apply is June 6.

The courses are open to Spanish-speaking and English-speaking journalists from ethnic media. Participants will be trained to effectively cover consumer finance issues including from credit and lending, to housing and mortgages, to retirement planning and investing.

The Spanish course will be led by Xavier Serbia, the editor-in-chief and founder of Xavierserbia.com. Serbia is a personal finance syndicated columnist and has written for various Hispanic media outlets.

The English course will be led by Chris Roush, who teaches business and economics reporting at the University of North Carolina and has written six books, including two about business journalism.

The courses will be divided into three parts:

• a six-week online training in personal financial journalism
• a six-week online mentoring period, during which participants produced stories to publish them in the media.
• a three-day field trip to New York City, where six selected participants will have the opportunity to interview with notable financial experts.

At the end of the online courses, three participants will receive a McGraw-Hill Personal Finance Award and cash prizes of US$2,000, US$1,000 and US$500.

For inquires contact Johanna Carrillo at [email protected] or Pablo Munoz at [email protected].

To apply: Click here for Spanish, and here for English.