The Ideal Education for Public Relations Professionals

What’s the right education for someone who wants to enter public relations?

In my opinion, it would encompass a wide range of disciplines not currently unified in one program at the vast majority of universities offering degrees in communications in the U.S. … or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. What is needed is a School of Public Relations (at key universities) that broadens its curriculum to include more diverse subject matter than the more traditional “vocational courses,” (PR advocacy, writing, PR programs, creativity, media relations) which are of course, important as well.

When I think back on my own long career — and the myriad client problems I’ve had to solve — I’d say the perfect course of study for a public relations practitioner (in no order of importance) would include classes on:

Business

• Business planning and strategy
  
• Project and people management
  
• How to negotiate
  
• The techniques of persuasion
  
• Marketing, sales and word-of-mouth
  
• Financial skills (e.g., budgeting, accounting, reporting, billing and forecasting)
  
• Economics
  
• Human resources
  
• The workings of Wall Street
  
• Corporate governance
  
• Database management
  
• Mergers & Acquisitions

Social Sciences

• The sociocultural and psychological dynamics of group behavior
  
• The political science of interest group formation and survival
  
• How to craft opinion and product studies
  
• The impact of communications on society
  
• Ethics
  
• Government relations

Communications

• Specialty writing (e.g., memos, speeches, reports, video scripts, blog copy)
• Journalism (press releases, feature stories, editorials)
  
• The art and science of media relations
  
• Technology-driven communications (e.g., the internet and the social media)
  
• Trend-spotting
  
• Issues management
  
• Communications and the law
  
• The elements of advocacy
  
• Understanding and reaching influencers
  
• Communicating in a global, multicultural market
  
• Event marketing
  
• Creativity
  
• Internal communications

Graphics

• Graphic design and visual identity

Government

• Understanding the Federal government (e.g. 3 branches, FDA, SEC)

The above is just a stream-of-consciousness sampling of the formidable skill sets required of today’s public relations professionals, and it is far from all-inclusive. This kind of training provides a basic foundation for intellectual agility: the ability to grasp complex information and act on it, quickly and efficiently. This skill is effectively learned in Schools of Arts & Sciences, where students are required to delve in to various subjects, learning and applying the knowledge rapidly. This is a fundamental need in public relations and should be addressed in a School of Public Relations, perhaps through joint programming with Arts & Sciences. In fact, mastering a diversity of subjects is one of the factors that led me into this field. And my intellectual desires have been more than fulfilled through the myriad subjects via clients I have tackled over the years…everything from computer, chemicals and automobiles to finance, hotels, aerosols, prescription drugs and robots.

Training alone in the more “vocationally tilted” communications schools is simply not enough to create a new generation of exceptional practitioners. The essential topics I’ve noted above are being taught in many parts of the University. The students, the profession and the clients are being disserved when the academic world can’t bring these pieces together in one School or develop joint programs with other Schools.

Unlike advertising, public relations not only builds awareness and promotes sales, it opens doors, triggers discussions, connects people, builds support, enhances credibility, changes cultures (and minds!), solves financial problems and creates political victories. The top public relations practitioner has to be more than “just” a communicator. He or she must be able to deploy a vast array of additional skills to master the problems confronting corporations these days and counsel a CEO.

As these proposed Schools of Public Relations become more demanding and stringent about who is admitted, we will gradually raise the level of people entering the field. Attracting top quality people to the field is an ongoing concern.

With more comprehensive and relevant training, more of us will be invited to have a “seat at the CEO table.” Because we will have been “table trained” from early on.


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