es and your contacts. PR education is irrelevant”. So the debate could also make us wondering, in this last class, if all that we’ve done for months was really useful! Maybe some were wondering “well what am I doing here?” Of course the motion is very Manichean, and I guess most of people would agree that personal attributes, contacts and education are all useful for having success in PR industry. So to me the real question is to what extend a MA degree in PR can really help me for my future career?What brings you a PR degree?
A first asset that a PR degree offers is to show the employers a real commitment to the industry. That is what our teacher Pam Williams highlighted to us: having dedicated a year of your life to study PR is a solid proof that you take your career in the industry seriously, and therefore employers must think that you will commit to your job. That is the idea that supports Kirsty O'Connor, a Leeds Metropolitan PR student: she expressed her own personal opinion on the subject by sending PRWeek's magazine a letter entitled "Forget English grads and hire PR students". In her letter she supports PR Degrees by adding that those who decide to enter the industry and haven't got a degree in PR, usually quit.
A second asset of having a PR degree is what studying a topic at university can bring for all topics: an in-depth thinking about it, and argumentation skills. I personally think that I’ve really enhanced some of my skills during these months: my presentation skills are much better now, as we’ve had a lot of training for talking in public and convey a message orally, and I’ve also learnt how to improve my creativity. You may think that creativity is only a personal attribute, but actually i
f you’re trained through exercises that ask you to be creative, you realize that it is a way of thinking that you can really improve, as it’s also shown on the diagram on the right.
Also, this master has really made me think more in depth about issues related to PR, and how to argument and sharpen my own opinion about them. As Trevor Morris, one of my teachers, said in an interview given to PRWeek’s video podcast, the value of a PR degree is, like for all kinds of degree, to get people to think , to analyze through researches and to be able to argue about PR issues, which are very broad as PR interfaces with culture, society or politics. So a PR degree makes you think and understand the industry in context, it sharps people’s minds about the industry… Like by doing what I’m doing right now, wri
ting this blog which is an assignment! And I have to say that I really enjoy doing it, as it really made me have some useful thinking about a number of issues, especially about current trends in our society. Trevor also said that employers would expect a PR degree to bring to the job applicant some academic and intellectual thinking, a mixture of analysis and basic vocational skills.
I think a third asset in having a PR degree is that it participates in giving the profession a greater status, and therefore gives a more serious status to PR practitioners, so to you if you want to work in PR industry. That is why PR education is supported by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR): the CIPR Code of Conduct encourages "professional training and development among members of the profession". But let’s not forget that only 8000 PR Practitioners have become members, which means only 1/3 of the PR Practitioners in the UK. However, the CIPR “mission” is stated as fighting for a better, "healthier" Public Relations profession, and it is "committed to enhancing professional standards in public relations through the emphasis on education training and lifelong learning initiatives in their strategy". As a worldwide-based institute it has managed to provide to young people who want to enter the industry the CIPR Diploma which is taught in more than 13 countries around the world. As Lis Lewis Jones, President of the CIPR stated: "The CIPR Diploma provides practitioners with the knowledge and understanding of theory and practice to develop as effective and efficient professionals"
A first asset that a PR degree offers is to show the employers a real commitment to the industry. That is what our teacher Pam Williams highlighted to us: having dedicated a year of your life to study PR is a solid proof that you take your career in the industry seriously, and therefore employers must think that you will commit to your job. That is the idea that supports Kirsty O'Connor, a Leeds Metropolitan PR student: she expressed her own personal opinion on the subject by sending PRWeek's magazine a letter entitled "Forget English grads and hire PR students". In her letter she supports PR Degrees by adding that those who decide to enter the industry and haven't got a degree in PR, usually quit.
A second asset of having a PR degree is what studying a topic at university can bring for all topics: an in-depth thinking about it, and argumentation skills. I personally think that I’ve really enhanced some of my skills during these months: my presentation skills are much better now, as we’ve had a lot of training for talking in public and convey a message orally, and I’ve also learnt how to improve my creativity. You may think that creativity is only a personal attribute, but actually i
f you’re trained through exercises that ask you to be creative, you realize that it is a way of thinking that you can really improve, as it’s also shown on the diagram on the right.Also, this master has really made me think more in depth about issues related to PR, and how to argument and sharpen my own opinion about them. As Trevor Morris, one of my teachers, said in an interview given to PRWeek’s video podcast, the value of a PR degree is, like for all kinds of degree, to get people to think , to analyze through researches and to be able to argue about PR issues, which are very broad as PR interfaces with culture, society or politics. So a PR degree makes you think and understand the industry in context, it sharps people’s minds about the industry… Like by doing what I’m doing right now, wri
ting this blog which is an assignment! And I have to say that I really enjoy doing it, as it really made me have some useful thinking about a number of issues, especially about current trends in our society. Trevor also said that employers would expect a PR degree to bring to the job applicant some academic and intellectual thinking, a mixture of analysis and basic vocational skills.I think a third asset in having a PR degree is that it participates in giving the profession a greater status, and therefore gives a more serious status to PR practitioners, so to you if you want to work in PR industry. That is why PR education is supported by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR): the CIPR Code of Conduct encourages "professional training and development among members of the profession". But let’s not forget that only 8000 PR Practitioners have become members, which means only 1/3 of the PR Practitioners in the UK. However, the CIPR “mission” is stated as fighting for a better, "healthier" Public Relations profession, and it is "committed to enhancing professional standards in public relations through the emphasis on education training and lifelong learning initiatives in their strategy". As a worldwide-based institute it has managed to provide to young people who want to enter the industry the CIPR Diploma which is taught in more than 13 countries around the world. As Lis Lewis Jones, President of the CIPR stated: "The CIPR Diploma provides practitioners with the knowledge and understanding of theory and practice to develop as effective and efficient professionals"
Is having a PR degree a key or a bonus?
And that raises the question: how can PR Practitioners don't need a degree to work in Public Relations? Indeed, to become a lawyer or an economist you have to study law or economy, so what makes PR industry different from
these? Well the thing is you don’t compulsorily need some knowledge to work in PR, as PR jobs are mainly maintaining good relationships and reputation, and you don’t need a particular knowledge for that. However, you need a few skills that a PR degree can really help you to enhance. But, as Trevor said in the PRWeek interview, a PR degree will never be a substitute for learning on the job, and the most important for employers is clearly the attitude and abilities of the candidates. Personally, I’ve always considered my MA as a bonus for getting a job, compared to candidates with the same experience and personal attributes but with no PR degree, and I’ve never considered this MA as the key for getting a job in PR.
Also, PR works a lot with networking and contacts, as it’s all about being known. So some can argue that studying PR is a waste of time when it is so crucial to build some personal contacts and learn the practice in reality, as for relationship focused jobs work experience is essential. Moreover, in the debate some pointed out that 80% of PR practitioners don’t have a PR degree.
But the limit to this argument is that for most of nowadays’ practitioners PR degrees didn’t exist when they could have a chance to study PR: they are very recent degrees. So probably the best argument for the PR degree defenders is to use the same kind of argument that I used in my “women and PR” post, when I said that women being presidents was unthinkable a few decades ago but now actually happening: as some degrees, like in business or politics, were r
are and a bit looked down upon 20-30 years ago but now totally recognized by the society, it may be just a question of time for PR degrees. As Trevor Morris said, cynicism from PR practitioners who don’t have a PR degree is dropping very quickly. He thinks that in the future PR degrees will be more recognized as, first, far more people working in the industry will have one, and secondly, increasingly employers are seeing the value of people that have shown this commitment to the industry and got that depth of thinking about it.
Sources:
-Pam Williams and Michaela O’Brien’s 2nd April 2008 presentation, University of Westminster
-Trevor Morris’ 1st November 2007 interview, PRWeek’s video podcast: http://www.prweek.com/uk/login/required/764188
-Myrto Tofaridou’s blog on PR education: http://myrtopr.blogspot.com/
And that raises the question: how can PR Practitioners don't need a degree to work in Public Relations? Indeed, to become a lawyer or an economist you have to study law or economy, so what makes PR industry different from
these? Well the thing is you don’t compulsorily need some knowledge to work in PR, as PR jobs are mainly maintaining good relationships and reputation, and you don’t need a particular knowledge for that. However, you need a few skills that a PR degree can really help you to enhance. But, as Trevor said in the PRWeek interview, a PR degree will never be a substitute for learning on the job, and the most important for employers is clearly the attitude and abilities of the candidates. Personally, I’ve always considered my MA as a bonus for getting a job, compared to candidates with the same experience and personal attributes but with no PR degree, and I’ve never considered this MA as the key for getting a job in PR.Also, PR works a lot with networking and contacts, as it’s all about being known. So some can argue that studying PR is a waste of time when it is so crucial to build some personal contacts and learn the practice in reality, as for relationship focused jobs work experience is essential. Moreover, in the debate some pointed out that 80% of PR practitioners don’t have a PR degree.
But the limit to this argument is that for most of nowadays’ practitioners PR degrees didn’t exist when they could have a chance to study PR: they are very recent degrees. So probably the best argument for the PR degree defenders is to use the same kind of argument that I used in my “women and PR” post, when I said that women being presidents was unthinkable a few decades ago but now actually happening: as some degrees, like in business or politics, were r
are and a bit looked down upon 20-30 years ago but now totally recognized by the society, it may be just a question of time for PR degrees. As Trevor Morris said, cynicism from PR practitioners who don’t have a PR degree is dropping very quickly. He thinks that in the future PR degrees will be more recognized as, first, far more people working in the industry will have one, and secondly, increasingly employers are seeing the value of people that have shown this commitment to the industry and got that depth of thinking about it.Sources:
-Pam Williams and Michaela O’Brien’s 2nd April 2008 presentation, University of Westminster
-Trevor Morris’ 1st November 2007 interview, PRWeek’s video podcast: http://www.prweek.com/uk/login/required/764188
-Myrto Tofaridou’s blog on PR education: http://myrtopr.blogspot.com/
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Having been a part of the Online Universal Work Marketing team for 4 months now, I’m thankful for my fellow team members who have patiently shown me the ropes along the way and made me feel welcome
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