Time has come for PR agencies & institutions to jointly grow the talent pool for PR

While the PR and communication industry is growing, talent and training has always been a challenge. Today, we have some very premier colleges who are offering courses which are primarily a one-year course to students who would like to take PR as a career. While opting for a career in PR and communications is on the rise, is there some way students can be given more practical experience and exposure as they join PR companies after completing their courses?

While there is a structured curriculum created by colleges who cover quite a bit of what one should know before starting one’s career in PR, it is the practical aspect of PR that needs to be deeply looked into. Internally many organisations have their own training modules for new joinees, but if agencies and college can collaborate then the students will be able to get a deeper understanding of their role when they begin their careers. After all, human capital is the biggest asset in the communication business, and if educational institutes are able to churn good all-round talent by jointly working with the PR companies, it will benefit both of them in the long run.

Is there a need to redesign the courses as the pandemic as brought in a lot of changes in consumer behaviour and PR has to counter new challenges? Designing a new syllabus which is relevant to the times will need joint efforts from PR companies and colleges to understand the needs and challenges and create one which delivers the right solutions and which benefits the students, organisations, colleges and clients.

While there is no dearth of good and experienced faculty across colleges, it would be really helpful if more experienced senior leaders from the PR and corporate world also go to these college and share their valuable knowledge and insights from time to time. Also, finding good talent every year to service growth and new clients is increasingly becoming challenging while the expectation level from clients keeps going up. Today, clients are willing to reward the agencies, but they also expect the agencies to ensure that the talent working on the account is agile and savvy. This where HR can make a huge difference if they also closely work with the educational institutes to create the right curriculum to groom the students at an early stage.

For communications professionals, it is not just about being responsible for communications and keeping the messaging sharp and well targeted, but there is also need to nurture and up the skillsets of the work force as the PR industry is evolving and rapidly changing, especially with the rapid digital transition. There is also an increasing scope to master more practices and enter the profession. While there are several courses today across colleges and universities, these need to reviewed periodically and colleges need to keep pace with the changes happening in the PR world.

The PR business has evolved, hence the right training and adapting to the latest technology will be a real advantage for the agencies. As the industry continues to evolve, being technologically savvy and digitally aware is imperative to stay head of the curve. The PR professional of tomorrow will no longer be restricted to a particular role, and instead will be expected to deliver a gamut of services. This is where both the organisations and educational institutes need to work in tandem on the curriculum, which will help both students and PR agencies in a building strong foundation to build their career.

According to Priya Mishra, Chief Talent Officer, BCW India Group, “Talent is one of the most critical areas for our industry, and for nurturing talent, institutions and organisations must work hand in hand. While the colleges provide a good base, the PR and communications industry is evolving at a dizzying pace, and by the time some of those developments reach the curriculum, things have already moved forward. The only way to address that is with PR professionals going to colleges and sharing their insights and experience as well as colleges sending their students as interns to get a more hands-on experience.”

Even after they have graduated and left college, there needs to be a plan in place to continuously upskill and train talent. Not just with cookie-cutter programmes but with specialised and customised programmes that consider the specific needs and vision of the organisation and the people. “This is one of the reasons why training has been one of our highest priorities and why we created the BCW India Group School of Learning instead of just tying up with an institute to supply the training. Our own people develop the programmes and they deliver them, making sure that our people are always ahead of the curve in terms of industry knowledge,” Mishra added.

Tarunjeet Rattan, Managing Partner, Nucleus PR, too, felt that joining hands with educational institutions is a very encouraging trend. She said, “Thanks to the efforts and hard work put in by thousands of PR professionals in the industry right now over the past several decades, PR now has a seat in the boardroom. It is today a lucrative career that commands respect, power and financial rise. However, while the first two are garnered with experience, the last aspect is something that most colleges do not prepare their students for, how to reach there or / and the time and energy it would take to get on the financial fast track.”

Rattan added that most colleges are open to industry sessions and most PR professionals happy to share their industry experience. It just needs an initiative from one party to set the ball rolling. “No need to look very far for this. Start with your college. Go back to college and share your insights with them. Slowly build from there,” she advised.

While stressing on the need for better and stronger collaboration between academia and practitioners at various levels, Melissa Arulappan, an experienced communication professional and teacher, noted, “PR is a very dynamic industry, students need to be aware of and keep abreast of trends and developments in the industry. It is, therefore, extremely important for practitioners to feed into curricula being developed.” She further added, “We need more PR practitioners to invest time in giving back and teaching students. PR is so practice-led, so experience-led that it is only when practitioners share their experience and learning that students will understand and appreciate the versatility of PR.”

At the same time, Arulappan emphasised that “While one-off guest faculty sessions are good, we need more than that. We also need practitioners to give students real-world assignments, grade them and provide them the feedback and guidance they need to hone their skills further. Similarly, it would do tenured faculty a world of good to spend time in PR agencies to understand trends and dynamics shaping the industry.”

Stressing on the real-world exposure, she pointed out that exposure through research and assignments will strengthen the knowledge of the students. Hence, it is very important for students to work on real-world assignments because that is when the rubber meets the road that they understand the finer nuances of PR.

PR professionals and PR colleges should collaborate for the future of this industry. Himanshu Raj, Head of Communications, Pristyn Care, stressed that, “It is important for them to work together and improve the curriculum of PR courses. As the PR industry is evolving, today there are a lot of new topics like policy communication, crisis management, and investor communication which need to be touched upon in detail at the colleges. The focus should be on functional training and PR leaders should be invited for lectures on a regular basis so that students can get first-hand experience in the PR industry.”

Raj further said that PR professionals can help colleges improve their curriculum by building a robust training program for youngsters. “The industry needs fresh talent pool and hence, the strong collaboration between the PR industry and the educational institutions will help to address the talent crunch which the industry has been facing,” he concluded.

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