Geetika Jain asked:


A career in Public Relation is in huge demand these days with the growing role of public perception in the success or failure of a product, service or even a celebrity. Young graduates are taking up professional training through PR courses to make a career in this field. There are many career options that one can opt for in the field of Public Relation.

With certain personality traits and a degree or diploma in PR, one can look forward to making a successful career in this line. Many institutes and colleges across India offer courses in PR.

 

For a youngster who is good at communication skills, has an outgoing personality and is willing to do something exciting in life in terms of meeting new people, a PR job is tailor made. The main responsibility of a PR professional is to create a positive image and goodwill of the company with all internal and external clients. The responsibilities of a PR person include monitoring and evaluating public attitudes. Since it is a management function, it involves maintaining and managing mutual relations and understanding between an organization and with all its stakeholders and the outside public. Here, public refers to shareholders, government, consumers, employees and the media. So, the basic function is to get along with people we constantly have to work with and get in touch with.

 

A PR Officer will ensure that there is an internal consistency and clear channel of communication in the company between the management and employees so that there is no ambiguity in the vital understanding. The PR professional would also need to think of new and creative ways of communication and keeping up a two-way flow of information and understanding. On a day to day basis, the PR profession requires making press releases for the public consumption of any announcement that the company wants to make. Also, creating leaflets, oral communications, managing the media image, devising strategies around a crisis and ensuring that the image of the company is not hurt in any way and if there is bad news floating around, then how to deal with that to do damage control are part of the day-to-day chores of a PR professional.

 

The qualifications required to be a PR professional are generally a diploma or post graduate diploma course on public relations. These are conducted by various institutions, both public and private. Those youngsters who are already graduates and are preferably with a background of social sciences or humanities go for these courses. This does not mean that students from other streams cannot join PR courses. Even students from Science and Commerce streams are also increasingly taking up PR courses to pursue a career in this exciting field. Apart from the diploma courses, there are also short term certificate courses that one can take up in this field. There are not many institutes that offer a two year master degree course in public relations. Generally, there are diploma courses only. Also, most courses on advertisement also include the study of public relations and have an additional paper on this.

 

Some institutes conduct entrance tests while others intake students on the basis of merit only. Usually, the duration of a PR course is of one year. Apart from this there are also short term certificate courses. Most training programmes in Advertising also include Public Relations. Some institutes have entrance exams while others prefer admission on merit basis. A Public Relations course would train the students on principles and techniques of public relations, administration and management of public relations, including organizational development, writing, creating news releases, annual reports, scripts, proposals, speeches, and other such related items, visual communications, including desktop publishing and computer graphics, and research. The most prominent courses in Public Relations are Course In Advertising & Public Relations, Course In Basic Public Relations, Course In Basic Image Management, Degree Course In Public Relations, Diploma In Public Relations, Diploma In Communication, Journalism and Public Relations, Master’s Degree In Journalism And Public Relations, Post Graduate Diploma In Journalism, Public Relations And Advertising, Post Graduate Diploma In Public Relations, Post Graduate Diploma In Public Relations And Advertising and Programme In Image Management. One can choose a course as per one’s interest.

 

Since Public Relations officials are in high demand, these courses are also in high demand. Armed with a good qualification and the requisite personality traits, one can look forward to a successful PR career not just in India but also abroad through international PR firms.



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