Top courses for PR and communications professionals

Professional courses help you gain theoretical knowledge, which helps you be a better practitioner. It also shows employers that you are passionate about the discipline and that PR is not a second choice for you. There are various kinds of courses from non-certifications, certifications to those that count towards your accreditation and chartered practitioner status across the spectrum of beginner, intermediary and advanced level. 

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Here are the top PR courses for you: 

• Courses by CIPR

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) is an industry body that offers training, qualifications, chartership and non-certificate resources like webinars and skills guides. It also recognises academic courses at the undergraduate and graduate level across universities in the UK. These training and resources are provided by other members of the CIPR and follow the industry-standard best practices.

Most of the courses and training material provided has an entry fee and is often available only to CIPR members. But accessing these resources is a good way of getting familiarised with the industry and the top professionals within it. You may check all the learning and development resources by CIPR here. 

• Courses by PRCA 

The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) is a trade body like CIPR that offers training via courses, qualifications and its Continued Professional Development (CPD) programme.

Most of these training are paid with a discount for PRCA members. You can filter the courses via levels such as introductory or advanced and expertise skills like crisis or internal communications. PRCA also offers industry-recognised online certifications and diplomas. You may read more about PRCA training here.

• Courses from PR Academy

PR Academy offers courses that are accredited by CIPR, PRCA and Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC). It offers online as well as in-person diploma, certificates and foundation courses in general communications and PR as well as specialised fields like public affairs, change management and crisis communications. 

PR Academy courses usually run a few months and it accepts the fee in monthly installations. You can check out those courses here. They also offer one free course called Introduction to PR that you can watch at your pace. It may help you give an idea of the quality of courses offered by PR Academy.

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• Postgraduate diploma courses from IIMC

Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in New Delhi, India is a government institute that offers diplomas in PR and journalism for graduates. These diplomas are offered by The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India. Each of the courses requires 11 months of full-time in-person commitment at the campus. They have a 50% focus on theory and 50% on practical training. There are regular professors as well as visiting professors who are industry practitioners, which helps to know the reality of working in the industry beyond just theory. 

There is an entrance exam to get into the courses. The fees ranged from ₹87,000/- to ₹1,60,000/- in 2021 depending on the course. The college provides placement opportunities at the end of the 11-month period by inviting companies and publishing houses looking to hire. You may check more about the programmes here. 

• Courses by PRSA

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) provides certificate programmes, workshops and webinars for professionals at any stage of their career. Some of these resources are free for members while paid for non-members. You may check more about it here. 

If you in the US, these may be good courses for you to check out. The membership fee ranges from $60 to $260 in 2021, depending on the type of membership. 

• Fundamentals of Media Relations by Muck Rack

MuckRack is an online tool used by PR professionals to find journalists to pitch stories to. MuckRack provides this certified 2-hour free online course taught by Michael Smart on how to successfully pitch journalists. It covers topics like how to find the right journalists, how to build relationships with them, framing your story and the right way to follow up. 

In order to get the certification, you have to answer the multiple-choice questions at the end of each lesson with 75% correct answers as well as take an exam at the end. You can enrol for the course for free here.

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• Arts and humanities courses at the undergraduate level

PR courses are great for professionals with a few years of experience in the industry and are looking to hone their knowledge. But for students deciding what to study in college to get into PR later, courses like arts, English, history, foreign languages, journalism, psychology and politics that teach you about human behaviour, how to think creatively, develop compelling narratives and write engagingly are a good choice.

To succeed in PR, it is more about your attitude and skillset than your knowledge, especially at the entry-level. At Curzon, we have a strong cognitive diversity with professionals from backgrounds like accounting, IT, government and journalism. Learning to utilise transferable skills have worked well for us. 

Read more: Essential skills for the PR pro of the future

• Business courses

PR has long moved away from media relations as the core service to a strategic management discipline. Business courses help you understand the management and strategic aspect of PR as well as the importance of the commercial aspect of creativity.

You can take any short-term business courses or BBA and MBA degrees depending on at what stage of your career you are. 

• Google Analytics for Beginners by Google

In order to remain relevant in the changing times of AI and big data, PR professionals need to know at least the basics of data analytics to tie the results of their work to ROI and bottom line. For example, most companies would not be satisfied with a media relations report that focuses on the traditional metric of advertising value equivalence (AVE). Instead, they want to see the metrics that actually make a difference to the company in the digital age, such as the number of backlinks from a media relations campaign that improved their SEO ranking, a spike in the traffic to website during the campaign and leads generated due to the media attention.   

One of the best introductory-level course on analytics is the free Google Analytics for Beginners course by Google that also provides certification, which you can showcase on your LinkedIn profile. There is a short test at the end of each lesson. The course has a practical component that teaches you how to navigate the Google Analytics interface and how to track campaigns. 

Conclusion

When choosing what courses to take, focus on the credentials of the course teacher, whether the course is accredited and recognised by an industry body, whether the course content is regularly updated for current trends and practices and if it has a component of practical experience beyond theory.

 

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Curzon PR is a London-based PR firm working with clients globally. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Business Development Team bd@curzonpr.com