More than 100 students gathered at the Royal Society of Arts in London last night to celebrate the achievements of this year’s PR Academy Course Award winners and to hear from guest speaker Alastair Campbell.
The PR Academy is known for its outstanding courses and works alongside the Chartered Institute of Public Relations CIPR, International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, AMEC, and the Association for Project Management, APM.
Alastair Campbell, @campbellclaret, is a writer, strategist and communicator, and is best known for his previous role as Tony Blair’s spokesman.
The PR Academy courses cover a broad range of skills that are needed for today’s comms professional. I am contacted regularly by students who are researching or writing papers, and am constantly impressed by the topics and their dedication.
Trends in PR
Their fourth annual PR Academy Trends survey recently found that 47 per cent of its past and present students named measurement as a subject where they had a skills gap.
Three-quarters of respondents said holding a professional qualification has led to career progression, or they thought it would this year.
Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) said their employer provided access to qualifications but 37 per cent said training budgets had been cut or frozen by their organisation over the past four years.
Want to read more? You can read the full results online and download a copy of the results.
Last night’s awards
I was delighted to judge the Internal Communication Certificate category for last night’s awards #PRstars, and would like to congratulate this year’s winners:
- CIPR Advanced Certificate in Public Relations: Hannah Williamson
- CIPR Diploma in Public Relations: Teresa Roberts
- CIPR Public Affairs Diploma: Caroline Keohane
- CIPR Internal Communication Certificate: Jessica Staff
- CIPR Internal Communication Diploma: Gloria Lombardi
- PR Academy Digital Communication Certificate: Charlotte Francis.
Well done to you all and to everyone who has completed their studying. I was planning to be there in person to congratulate the students, but unfortunately was feeling unwell yesterday, so had to miss the night. But it has been great to read all the conversations online today and I hear it was a fun night.
Ann Pilkington, Co-Founder of PR Academy @PRAcademy, said: “While we introduced these annual awards to recognise those graduating with the best overall distinction from our courses, they are about recognising the achievements of all who have chosen to invest in their chosen profession by getting qualified.”
What makes an award-winning paper? You can read Gloria’s paper on Engaging managers, communicative competencies and the role of internal communication online.
Find out more information about the PR Academy courses via their website.
Professional qualifications
Are you thinking about taking a professional qualification? In my FIR presents All Things IC with Rachel Miller podcast last month I interviewed PR Academy’s Kevin Ruck and also Course Director of the Kingston IC diploma and masters courses, Liz Cochrane.
See full information and listen to their thoughts on the show.
Here are some of the tweets from last night:
My #prstar – @JennaPAKerr receiving internal comms award from @campbellclaret pic.twitter.com/r5GhLQYqiR
— Laura F. Molloy (@laurafmolloy) March 10, 2014
@pracademy @maudiemo A #prstar is like a great midfielder: reading the game, controlling the pace, setting up the chances – like John Barnes
— Robert Watling (@RobertWatling1) March 10, 2014
“I don’t know what media means anymore” another great @campbellclaret quote #prstar @pracademy
— Heather Yaxley (@greenbanana) March 10, 2014
So proud of my @cipr_uk public affairs distinction #prstars @pracademy
— Heather Yaxley (@greenbanana) March 10, 2014
#PR students do you now get strategy & tactics? @campbellclaret suggests just look at UK government #prstars @pracademy
— Heather Yaxley (@greenbanana) March 10, 2014
OMG Malcolm Tucker is in the room #prstars
— Marc Wright (@Simply_Marc) March 10, 2014
Great to see so many #internalcomms diploma students at tonight’s @pracademy course awards. Congrats to @LOMBARDI_GLORIA #topstudent
— Kevin Ruck (@AcademyKev) March 10, 2014
Thanks @campbellclaret for joining us tonight for #prstars event. Good words created real buzz for our #pr students
— PR Academy (@pracademy) March 10, 2014
Well done again to all the PR Academy students and their tutors.
Post author: Rachel Miller.
