Addressing a skills gap in the public relations industry

Comments by PRCA Chief Executive, Francis Ingham.

“PR is no different to other industries, in that there’s a gap in skills and comfort zones between senior and junior people. Stereotyping slightly, agency MDs and comms directors are much less comfortable with social media than their junior colleagues, who in turn are much less at ease with writing for a non-social audience. We see evidence of that via our own training and qualifications programmes –bosses put their juniors on grammar and writing skills courses; and bosses tell us they’ve been nagged or embarrassed into doing a social media course.

“The other notable gap that exists though is more general. It’s the lack of business skills –being commercially focussed, and realising that PR isn’t all about being creative, it’s about bottom lines too.

“Addressing those gaps is partly about transferring knowledge within teams. But it’s also about getting experts in, who bring an outsiders’ insight. Many people offer such services, and the PRCA is no exception. Where I hope we’re different is that our training courses and qualifications are avowedly practical, not theoretical. If you want the theory of PR, go back to university. If you want the commercial reality of PR, I’d say give us a go.”

This is the entirety of Francis’ contribution to the PR Moment article entitled “The great PR skills gap”, by Daney Parker of PR Moment.

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