‘Take Advantage Of Opportunities,’ PR Students Told

According to the practitioners, public relations (PR) students often divert into other professions because of the seeming lack of career development guidance available to them; and to “right this wrong,” the Public Relations Management Students’ Association (PReMSA) of the University of Profesional Studies, Accra has held its first ever career development seminar dubbed Time with the Practitioners.

The one-day mentorship programme which was under the theme “Essence of Public Relations in Modern Times and Prospects for the Future” aimed at sensitizing and equipping students on the opportunities and ethics in the PR circles.

Addressing the students, blogger and Founder of E’April Public Relations, Faith Senam Ocloo stated that the student forum was one of many steps adopted by her outfit towards bridging the gap between academia and industry.

She says although PR practitioners play an important role in the corporate governance system, little or no attention is often given to their contributions, and expressed her disappointment over what she termed as ‘sad development’.

“We PR practitioners are good at promoting our clients than ourselves. PR has been in Ghana for many years but it is rather unfortunate that, people still do not know what PR is all about. This is because we have failed to talk about it. People prefer to hide when questions pertaining to PR are being asked,” she bemoaned.

Communications strategist and PR Consultant, Abigail Naa Korley Clegg observed that specializing in PR builds one’s thinking and writing skills, and also called on the students to embrace technology if they are to be successful in their chosen profession.

“As a PR person, there is the need to always know what is trending within the industry you work in. This helps you know what is happening within that industry and to know what people have to say about your organization. This also helps with the influencer activity process, this is because looking for PR influencers are quite difficult”, she explained.

The seminar was graced by the Head of the Public Relations Department, Dr Kwaku Rockson, New Media lecturer and webmaster, Charles Nii Ayiku Ayiku as well as some PR professionals.